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O's lend the Rays a hand

Brady Anderson's poor baserunning stops rally in the 3-2 Tampa Bay win.

By MARC TOPKIN

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 3, 2001

BALTIMORE -- Sometimes when you're feeling down, when things are going wrong, you need a hand, a helpful shove in the right direction.

With Thursday afternoon's game slipping away, the Rays got precisely the assistance they needed. Baltimore coach Tom Trebelhorn reached out and touched Brady Anderson as he tried to hold him up at third in the midst of a seventh-inning rally, a rules violation resulting in an out that killed the Orioles' comeback and preserved the Rays' 3-2 victory.

"I'd never seen that play called at all; I think it's great," said Tanyon Sturtze, who went seven innings for his sixth win. "It was a great play. There's nothing wrong with a little bit of help. It was nice. Very nice."

Baltimore manager Mike Hargrove argued vigorously that the contact was incidental, that Anderson merely bumped into Trebelhorn, but home plate umpire John Hirschbeck stuck with the call, citing rule 7.09 (i), which says a coach can't "physically assist" a runner.

Having plainly seen the contact, Rays manager Hal McRae didn't see what all Hargrove's fussing was about.

"Obvious. It was like a bump-and-run. He was trying to hold him on the line of scrimmage," McRae said. "I don't know what happened, but they ended up together. And we got an out."

It wasn't just any out.

As they did in the two previous games, the Rays built an early lead. And, once again, they seemed determined to give it away.

The Rays got one run in the second when catcher John Flaherty, making an unscheduled start because rookie Toby Hall has a bruised left knee, doubled to left. Aubrey Huff, on an 8-for-16 tear, scored and Chris Gomez was thrown out at the plate.

Then they got two more in the fifth, loading the bases on two walks and a single and getting an up-the-middle single from Steve Cox.

The Orioles, who won Wednesday's game with a two-run homer on the final pitch, battled back again.

They cut the lead to 3-1 with a run in the fifth off Sturtze, who was battling a lack of control and a stiff back, and were rallying in the seventh.

A single, a walk and a sacrifice bunt put the tying runs in scoring position with one out, and Chris Richard singled hard to center.

As Jerry Hairston scored easily, Trebelhorn initially waved Anderson home, then backpedaled with his hands raised as an obvious stop sign. Anderson, who didn't appear to pick up the sign until it was too late, took a wide turn and the two collided near the home plate end of the coaches' box.

"Pretty strange, wasn't it?" Sturtze said. "I'm getting ready to back up home plate and I heard John (Hirschbeck) yelling and I was like, "What's going on?' and then all of a sudden they said he touched him. I was like, "Great, let's go. That's perfect.' I just grabbed the ball and ran over to the mound as fast as possible."

Said Flaherty: "Obviously, that was huge. To tell you the truth, I didn't know what was going on. I was looking for the ball and I heard Hirschbeck say, "You're out!' I couldn't figure out what was going on. You learn something new every day in this game."

If that wasn't enough help, the Orioles, who have lost 22 of their last 28, pitched in again. With cleanup hitter Jeff Conine at the plate next, Richard had second base stolen but overslid the base and was tagged out.

"You just don't see two plays like that in one inning," Sturtze said. "That was pretty amazing. It's about time we got a little bit of luck in this clubhouse."

"It doesn't happen every day," Flaherty said. "One out of a hundred and whatever is nice."

After Sturtze got through the seventh, Jesus Colome pitched a scoreless eighth and Victor Zambrano worked the ninth for his first major-league save, surviving a double by Anderson that struck about 2 feet from the top of the left-centerfield wall.

Zambrano has not allowed a run in nine games and 14 1/3 innings since the All-Star break, the longest streak in the majors. The rookie right-hander has also held batters to a .173 average.

"I've got confidence in myself and all my pitches," Zambrano said. "I feel ready and comfortable in any situation."

By taking two of the three games, the Rays won their first road series against an American League opponent this season, their second total away from home and their seventh overall.

McRae wasn't even aware of the occasion.

"I knew we hadn't done a lot of winning," he said. "When you lose quite a bit, there's no reason to be specific."

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