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Slam not enough for Sturtze, Rays

Ben Grieve provides the Rays a cushion, but Texas rallies with barrage of hits, 13-7.

By MARC TOPKIN

© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 28, 2001

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The way Hal McRae saw it, the Rays won Friday's game when Ben Grieve hit a grand slam in the top of the third inning to give them a four-run lead.

Then they lost it when the Rangers came back and scored six runs -- on a walk and seven singles -- in the bottom of the third.

The final score was 13-7 Texas, but the final 51/2 innings didn't do much to change the outcome after the Rays blew the 5-1 lead.

Or temper the disappointment.

"A "grand salami' generally means you win. Unless they hit one too, you win," McRae said. "The early lead is what you hope for each night. So everyone can relax and play and not have to make great pitches and pitch in jams. That's what you hope for so everyone can relax and play. There's more margin for error. But we gave it all back in the bottom half of the inning."

Tanyon Sturtze was on the receiving end, but the beating wasn't brutal. It was more like a series of pokes and jabs.

He got one quick out, then gave up a single, and another, and another, five in a row in all, none hit too sharply. After walking Gabe Kapler, Sturtze gave up two more singles, and by the time he got the third out on his 42nd pitch of the inning, the Rangers were ahead for good at 7-5.

"It was a long inning, too long," Sturtze said. "It got to the point where I was like, "Hit it at somebody. Let's go!"' Sturtze, who had won two of his previous three outings, said he didn't pitch that poorly.

"In that one big inning I made some good pitches, they just happened to find some holes, drop some in front of people," he said. "There's nothing you can do about that."

With the bullpen already shorthanded, McRae left Sturtze in for five innings, and it took him 118 pitches to get that far. Relievers Travis Phelps and Doug Creek had problems of their own in the final three.

"We just didn't pitch well," McRae said.

Typical of the way their season has gone, the pitchers failed on a night when the hitters excelled.

"We're still getting a lot of that, and that's been our problem all year," McRae said. "The mindset has to change, but it's tough to change things when you're not winning. We need to win more to change the mindset because we consistently play inconsistent.

"We pitch, we don't hit. We hit, we don't pitch. We get leads, we don't hold leads."

Steve Cox, in his first game as starting first baseman after the trade of Fred McGriff, homered to lead off the second. Toby Hall, in his first appearance as the primary catcher, homered to lead off the fourth. Grieve, who has struggled much of the season, had three hits and matched his career high with five RBI.

"I'm feeling better," Grieve said. "Each at-bat, on a consistent basis, I think I felt like I was seeing the ball and ready to take a good swing pretty much every pitch. I don't know how many times that's happened this year, maybe once. It's a nice feeling to have that feeling for more than a couple at-bats. Hopefully it will still be there (tonight)."

Some nights, that's all you can ask.

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