Sports: Too late for rookie, but Rays come through

Too late for rookie, but Rays come through

Facing powerful Rangers on the road, Nick Bierbrodt gives reason for hope as Tampa Bay pulls out a 7-3 win in 10.

By MARC TOPKIN

Facing powerful Rangers on the road, Nick Bierbrodt gives reason for hope as Tampa Bay pulls out a 7-3 win in 10.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Nick Bierbrodt got Albie Lopez's No. 32 and his place in the rotation.

Someday, the more interesting question may be whether he can assume Lopez's role as the best pitcher on the Tampa Bay staff.

Bierbrodt, the 23-year-old left-hander acquired Wednesday from Arizona in the Lopez trade, started his Rays career with six impressive innings in what turned out to be a 7-3 10-inning Tampa Bay victory.

"An outstanding pitching performance from Nick Bierbrodt," Rays manager Hal McRae said. "He had a good fastball, good command and a good slider. He pitched those guys well."

"I'm very happy," Bierbrodt said. "It definitely helped that they'd never seen me. That was a big advantage to me. It was definitely a lot easier as far as every pitch not being a big pitch. Obviously we're not in a pennant race, and that definitely helped me."

Bierbrodt should have had the victory Saturday night. The Rays carried a 3-1 lead into the ninth, but Esteban Yan gave it away, with help from Randy Winn, whose two errors contributed to the tying runs.

But the Rays came back strong in the 10th, the rally starting when pinch-hitter Russ Johnson drew a walk and daringly went first-to-third on a single by Chris Gomez, who homered earlier.

Rookie catcher Toby Hall, recalled Thursday, delivered the winner with a hard single to left, and the Rays got three more runs on hits by Ben Grieve and Greg Vaughn.

"All in all it was a good game because we dealt with some adversity and we won the ballgame," McRae said.

Relying predominantly on a fastball routinely clocked in the low 90s and mixing in sharp slider and a few changeups, Bierbrodt allowed just a run on a homer by Scott Sheldon through six stellar innings.

Overall, Bierbrodt gave up four hits, struck out five and walked three while throwing 89 pitches.

"He wanted to know why he only threw 89," McRae said. "I told him we start with six innings and we build up to nine, not to get ahead of himself."

Bierbrodt initially was upset about coming out of the game, then was able to relish his performance and said things couldn't have gone much better. "Especially for my first outing," Bierbrodt said. "That's why I asked Hal for the lineup card. It would have been nice to go out there for one or two more but I'm happy with it. I'll sleep all right tonight."

Bierbrodt was most impressive against Texas' treacherous trio of Alex Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro and Ivan Rodriguez, allowing a walk in eight plate appearances, striking out A-Rod and Palmeiro twice each.

"He tied the big guys up," McRae said.

Gomez, promoted from Triple A primarily because of his defensive abilities, provided the first three Tampa Bay runs, hitting a homer in the second and deep sacrifice flies in the fourth and eighth.

Released by San Diego on June 22, Gomez had hit one home run in his previous 491 major-league at-bats before joining the Rays on Tuesday. Saturday's blast gave him three in his first 13 Tampa Bay at-bats.

Victor Zambrano allowed one hit in two solid innings of relief before being replaced by Yan, who hadn't allowed an earned run in six outings since coming off the disabled list July 13.

But Yan didn't have it. He gave up singles to Bill Haselman and Gabe Kapler to open the inning, and Haselman went to third when Winn misplayed the ball.

Mike Lamb flied to shallow center, but pinch-hitter Frank Catalanotto singled just past diving second baseman Brent Abernathy to drive in Haselman.

Winn misplayed that ball, too, allowing Kapler to reach third. And that hurt when Ricky Ledee hit a fly ball to right-center and Kapler raced home ahead of Winn's throw to tie the score.

Bierbrodt, Arizona's first first-round pick in 1996, opened this season on the disabled list with a sore elbow, then worked his way from Double-A El Paso (where he was 2-1 with a 1.37 ERA) to Triple-A Tucson (4-1, 2.18) to the majors. After a rough June 7 debut, in which he got knocked out by Los Angeles after two innings, he went 2-2 with a 6.42 ERA.

The Diamondbacks considered him a part of their future but gave him up to address the present, acquiring catcher Mike DiFelice and Lopez, who was roughed up in his Arizona debut Saturday night, allowing seven runs in 5 1/3 innings.