Sports: Kennedy's luck still running cold

Kennedy pitched well again Sunday night, better than he had been, allowing two runs on five hits over 6 2/3 innings. But all he got for his efforts was a fifth straight loss as Texas scored a 2-0 victory.

[AP photo]
Rays rookie Joe Kennedy delivers a two-run performance against the Rangers.

Kennedy has allowed three runs or fewer in eight of his 11 starts but has a 3-6 record to show for it.

"Tonight he pitched good enough to win," manager Hal McRae said. "Some of the other nights, maybe he didn't. He pitched well. But most nights, he wins the game tonight. I thought he pitched better tonight than he did over his last three or four starts."

There is a reason for that, though Kennedy, the prized 22-year-old left-hander, insists it isn't cause for concern.

"The last three, four starts I haven't been really feeling that good," Kennedy said. "My arm didn't hurt, it's just that tonight was the first time in about a month I could pitch in again, and with something behind it. I felt great and I went right after them."

The problem, Kennedy said, was more like a "dead arm" period than any pain or discomfort.

"My arm felt fine," he said. "I just didn't have that extra couple miles on my fastball that I did tonight."

Kennedy didn't do much wrong during his 100-pitch outing. He gave up one run on a single by Mike Lamb with two outs in the second and another when rookie outfielder Craig Monroe knocked a pitch into the rightfield seats for his first major-league hit in the fifth.

Afterward, he wasn't too upset about it.

"You're going to have that, one pitch for a home run, a check swing on a changeup for a run," Kennedy said. "Those are things you can't control. It's all part of the game."

Nor did he sound too frustrated about the five-game losing streak or his 1-6 record since winning his first two starts.

"You're always disappointed if you go out there and pitch and you get the loss," he said. "But, like I said before, this year is not about winning or losing. It's about going out there and getting people out."

The loss also continued Kennedy's misery tour across North America. At home, he is 2-2 with a 2.59 ERA. But on the road, he is 1-4 with a 6.55 ERA.

Kennedy hasn't gotten much help from his teammates, who have scored 14 runs in his losses.

Sunday, the Rays managed four hits off starter Rick Helling, who pitched Texas' first complete game shutout since August 1999.

"We got some pitches to hit and we didn't hit them, so we helped him out a little bit," Ben Grieve said. "But he had a complete game shutout, so he must have been doing some things right."

Helling, whose seven wins against the Rays are more then anybody, was so good the Rays didn't even get a runner to second base until the seventh. The closest they came to scoring probably was Jason Tyner's bid for his first home run since high school, but Monroe made a leaping catch at the top of the rightfield wall in the eighth.

"I got under it a little bit," Tyner said as teammates teased him that it was his best shot. "I wish I had hit more of a line drive. If I play long enough, I'll hit one."

Other than that, their only true opportunity came in the seventh, when Steve Cox led off with a double.

But Randy Winn, in a 2-for-20 slump, failed to hit the ball to the right side, grounding to third. Aubrey Huff then hit the ball to the right side, grounding to second, but Chris Gomez flied to right.

"We didn't execute," McRae said.

After the 2-hour, 26-minute game, the Rays left for Baltimore, scheduled for a predawn arrival and a day off before opening a three-game series Tuesday night.

The Rangers are headed there, too, to play a game tonight that was rescheduled from July 19 as a result of a train derailment near Camden Yards.

But because the Rangers couldn't get hotel rooms in Baltimore, they'll fly in this afternoon, play the 8:05 p.m. game, then fly to New York, where they open a series Tuesday.

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