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Rays bop Pedro, then get slammed

Rico Brogna wins it for Boston with a bases-clearing homer in the bottom of the ninth.

By MARC TOPKIN

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 15, 2000

BOSTON -- The Devil Rays had no trouble with Pedro Martinez on Monday. It was the other parts of the game that did them in in a frustrating 7-3 loss to Boston.

The Rays led 3-0 after 51/2 innings and had knocked Martinez out, when the game turned. A team-record three errors in the sixth inning led to the tying runs, and the Red Sox won it in the ninth.

Rico Brogna hit a grand slam off Billy Taylor to end it.

The winning rally started when Taylor hit Darren Lewis with his first pitch. Lewis stole second when Trot Nixon was trying to bunt, and went to third when Nixon flied to right. Taylor struck out Jason Varitek, then the Rays intentionally walked Carl Everett and Nomar Garciaparra to load the bases and face Brogna.

There was rain much of the day in Boston, as seems to be the local custom when the Rays are in town, with showers throughout the night. Game-time temperature was 67 degrees and declining, but that didn't deter a sellout crowd of 32,174, the 31st consecutive full house at Fenway Park.

The Rays had a chance to go ahead in the eighth, but wasted it with debatable strategy. With Greg Vaughn on second and Fred McGriff on first, manager Larry Rothschild decided against the standard bunt. Jose Guillen flied to short right and Russ Johnson grounded into an inning-ending double play.

They had two on again in the ninth, on a pair of infield singles and a Boston throwing error, but Miguel Cairo, who earlier hit a three-run homer, grounded to short.

Martinez got off to a dazzling start, striking out the first four Rays, but got into some surprising trouble in the third.

Veteran shortstop Ozzie Guillen, starting especially because Martinez was on the mound, sparked the third-inning uprising with a one-out single up the middle. With Guillen in motion, Gerald Williams fought off a tough pitch for an opposite-field single, putting runners on first and third.

Cairo took a strike, then jumped on and 0-and-1 pitch and drive it into the net above the 37-foot high leftfield wall.

To say that was a surprising turn of events would be to say they threw a few bags of tea in the harbor a couple hundred years ago.

Cairo hadn't hit a home run since July 20 of last year -- a span of 522 at-bats -- and had never hit a three-run home run in the major leagues. Martinez, meanwhile, had not allowed a three-run home run all season.

It took an athletic play by Garciaparra at shortstop to prevent the Rays from another run in the fourth. Rookie Aubrey Huff lined a one-out double to left-center and went to third on a ground-out, but Garciaparra went far to his left to scoop Williams' grounder and threw him out at first.

That was enough for Martinez, who left after four innings with what the Red Sox said was right shoulder stiffness. It was his shortest outing of the season.

Tampa Bay starter Dave Eiland beat Martinez on July 7, 1999, at Tropicana Field and seemed up to the challenge Monday in his second start after 11 weeks on the disabled list with a sore left hip.

He allowed four hits through five shutout innings, stranding two runners at second and getting out of a first-and-third jam to end the fifth.

But he ran into trouble, and got run out of the game, in the sixth. With a 3-0 lead the Rays went to their prevent defense, putting Russ Johnson in for rookie Aubrey Huff at third and Jason Tyner in left in place of Steve Cox. But it didn't prevent the Sox from tying the score, thanks in large part to two of Tampa Bay's three errors. It was the first time this season they made three errors in an inning.

Everett started the rally with a single past first baseman McGriff, then stole second and went to third when catcher John Flaherty's throw skipped into centerfield.

It got worse from there when Garciaparra hit a seemingly routine fly to left-center. Tyner, the 23-year-old playing for the first time at Fenway, was tracking the ball on a circuitous route. Williams rushed over at the last minute and got his glove on the ball, but bobbled and then dropped it, allowing Everett to score.

Brian Daubach drove Garciaparra in with a double, finishing Eiland's night, then came around to score on a bunt and a sacrifice fly by Scott Hatteberg.

It may be that it just took the Red Sox some time to wake up. They arrived home about 4 a.m. Monday from the final leg of an 18-day road trip.

The Rays actually, dare we say it, had owned Martinez. Relatively speaking, anyway. They had beaten him in back-to-back starts, one of only seven teams to do so, and were bidding to become the first American League team to reel off three in a row. So what if in those two games, he struck out 31 and allowed 13 hits, while giving up four runs in 17 innings? The Rays won both games.

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