Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
Russ Johnson's bunt rescues Tampa Bay after it blows a 4-0 lead in a 6-4 victory over the White Sox.
By KEVIN KELLY
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 6, 2001
CHICAGO -- Hal McRae was at a breaking point.
Watching another win against the White Sox fade into defeat because of a critical error, the Rays manager stood in his team's dugout Sunday at Comiskey Park and shifted thoughts to his post-game plans.
There was going to be a closed-door meeting. He would lecture loudly about the mental mistakes that led to nine runs in two games.
But that was an inning before Russ Johnson came to bat as a pinch-hitter with runners on the corners and the score tied at 4 in the ninth.
"I sent him up there," McRae said, "because I didn't want to do anything cute."
What Johnson did went beyond cute.
His unannounced squeeze bunt scored Damian Rolls from third, put the Rays ahead for good in a 6-4 win and spared teammates from the wrath of an angry manager.
"When I got up to the plate ... bunt was embedded in my brain and I had it on my mind," Johnson said. "I knew I could bunt. So I just stepped in there and said, 'This is what I'm going to go with. I'm going to go with this first and if it doesn't work, then I'll battle.'
"It just worked out."
Said McRae, "I didn't put (the bunt) on. So naturally you're surprised."
The Rays scored three in the first on a home run by Greg Vaughn, which gave starter Paul Wilson some leeway for mistakes he never made before 21,443.
The right-hander pitched well for the third straight time since returning to the rotation July 25. That will make for a tough decision when Bryan Rekar is ready to come off the disabled list.
"We'll see when we get there," McRae said. "We don't know when we're going to get Rekar back. If we get him back in September, that's not a problem. If we get him back before September, we'll evaluate the situation."
Wilson allowed six hits in 5 1/3 scoreless innings, struck out two and walked one. He has given up three earned runs in his past 15 1/3 innings.
"I've always had a purpose of going out there and not giving up any runs, but I'm just trying to stay focused better," he said. "We're to the point now in our season, individually and as a team, where we should just be, 'What have we got to lose?' We've got to let it all hang out and that's what I've been trying to do."
Wilson didn't get the victory because the White Sox scored one in the seventh and three in the eighth to tie the score.
What perturbed McRae about Chicago's rally wasn't just the throwing error by shortstop Felix Martinez in the eighth. It was that it happened one night after Brent Abernathy misplayed a grounder that could have ended an inning and instead led to six runs and a loss.
Martinez's throw on a grounder by Paul Konerko pulled first baseman Steve Cox off the bag, keeping the inning going with two outs. Two batters later, Jeff Liefer hit a three-run homer to leftfield off Victor Zambrano to tie it.
"The last couple of days we haven't made the plays and the pitchers have had to throw additional pitches, and they're going past their allotment of outs," McRae said. "That's asking too much and that's putting too much strain on the pitchers."
Johnson's bunt softened the focus on those shortcomings.
Rightfielder Randy Winn led off the ninth with a single but was caught stealing before Aubrey Huff doubled. Rolls pinch ran and advanced to third on a wild pitch, then scored on the one-out bunt after a walk to John Flaherty.
Closer Esteban Yan pitched a scoreless ninth for his 14th save. Zambrano improved to 4-1.
"He was sharp today," McRae said of Yan. "I wanted to get him back out there and I wasn't going to waver on him anymore."
With 14 hits, the Rays pushed their total to 29 in the past two games. That's their most since they had 33 against the Mariners in May 2000.
Tampa Bay also is playing more aggressively. Jason Tyner, who has a 10-game hitting streak, stole a base. So did Abernathy, who is 7-for-8 in past two games.
"All in all, we didn't play our best ballgame, but we played the type game that we intend to play," McRae said. "We were aggressive and we forced the White Sox to play. They're going to have to play to beat us because we're going to keep attacking and attacking."