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Twins sweat out skid-snapping win

Rays rally for three in ninth before falling 6-4, their first loss in six games to Minnesota.

By KEVIN KELLY

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 19, 2001

MINNEAPOLIS -- The game going on just outside the Rays clubhouse played on a television perched atop a bank of lockers.

As focused as someone nearing the climax of a good mystery novel, Nick Bierbrodt watched from a couch halfway across the room.

"We were wantin' to win," the Rays pitcher said.

At the same time Bierbrodt was watching teammates shave a five-run deficit to two in the ninth inning against the Twins on Saturday, designated hitter Greg Vaughn waited on deck.

"Oh," he said, "I wanted to be up there hitting."

Brent Abernathy was.

With bases loaded, his team trailing by two and a full count against closer Todd Jones, Abernathy struck out looking to end the Rays' five-game winning streak against the Twins with a 6-4 loss before an announced 30,018 at the Metrodome.

"I was trying to get a pitch to hit," Abernathy said. "But it's one of those nights where I worked the count good and he made the pitch when it came down to a pressure situation. You've got to tip your hat to a guy that's going to close the game out with a breaking ball like he threw me."

The strikeout ended an eventful ballgame in which Bierbrodt (1-3) gave up two home runs, Twins starter Kyle Lohse and reliever Jack Cressend retired 20 straight at one point and Tampa Bay exploited Minnesota's most glaring weakness in the ninth, its late-inning relievers.

"We were kind of dead in the water the whole game there," said Rays shortstop Chris Gomez, who hit a two-run single off Jones to make it 6-3. "But we fought back late in the game and that's a good sign."

Bierbrodt didn't seem nearly as dominating as he was six days earlier at Tropicana Field when he allowed two hits in a sparkling seven-inning performance, though he and manager Hal McRae thought otherwise.

"I felt better today than I did last game," Bierbrodt said. "I would take the way I felt today over the last outing every time. We just didn't get the results."

The Twins, who are 10-26 since the All-Star break and remain 41/2 games behind Cleveland, keyed in on the left-hander, who pitched six innings.

Rightfielder Brian Buchanan homered to straightaway centerfield to break a tie at 1 in the third, and third baseman Corey Koskie added two-run homers off Bierbrodt in the sixth and Esteban Yan in the eighth to make it 6-1.

Of the 16 runs Bierbrodt has allowed since he was traded to Tampa Bay from Arizona on July 25, 12 have come on homers.

"Bierbrodt pitched well enough to win the ballgame," McRae said.

Lohse (4-5) settled down and pitched spectacularly in six innings after shaky first and second innings.

The right-hander allowed one run on two hits and retired the final 13 batters he faced to help give Minnesota its second win in 13 games. Cressend came on and retired seven straight before he gave up a hit to Ben Grieve in the ninth that sparked the Rays' three-run rally.

"Until the ninth inning we didn't generate any offense," McRae said. "I thought that was the difference. The guys hung in there and fought back and we had a chance to win the ballgame in the ninth."

But that was only after Yan, making his first appearance since blowing a save against the Twins on Aug. 12, threw the pitch that Koskie hit for his second homer of the game.

The Rays got four hits in the ninth, and of their three runs, two were charged to Eddie Guardado. The victory stopped an eight-game losing streak for the Twins and gave them their first win against the Rays since last season.

"We're playing better baseball and we're competing a lot better," Rays third baseman Russ Johnson said. "When you compete you're going to win some baseball games. Unfortunately for the Twins, it's our time to play them. We've been beating up on them a little bit.

"Tonight was a big win for them, obviously. They're in the running for something."

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