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Rays find just enough offense

Beating Boston 5-2 alleviates Tampa Bay's statistical woes.

By MARC TOPKIN

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 29, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- The Devil Rays had enough trouble getting home, their Sunday night charter flight from Baltimore having been delayed nearly six hours.

So when they got back to Tropicana Field on Monday, they made their runs count, rallying for a 5-2 victory over Boston.

As much trouble as the Rays have had scoring, the five runs they posted must have seemed like a windfall.

"Lately, maybe," closer Roberto Hernandez said. "We haven't been playing bad baseball, we just haven't been scoring."

The Rays rang up just 48 on their 13-game road trip, 23 of those in two games. Coming into Monday they ranked 13th in the American League in runs and last in average and on-base percentage, and things didn't look promising when they gave away an early 1-0 lead Monday and trailed the league's stingiest pitching crew 2-1 after six.

But they scratched out a run to tie in the seventh, then broke the game open with three in the eighth against reliever Hipolito Pichardo, Mike DiFelice delivering the clutch hit to give Bryan Rekar the win.

"Get 'em when they count," manager Larry Rothschild said. "The way we've been pitching lately (an AL-best 4.22 ERA since June 1), if we do that we'll win some ballgames."

Monday's win was a testimony to good pitching, good defense and good advice, DiFelice having been effectively inspired by a mid-day conversation with former teammate Bobby Witt.

"We had a nice little talk today about going out there and playing to win, playing hard and trying to contribute," DiFelice said. "That's kind of the philosophy I took out there today. I've been struggling a little bit at the plate and he kind of reminded me, in my role, to just go out there and try to help the team any way I can, and it paid off tonight."

Actually, DiFelice had a hand in three big plays.

After rookie Aubrey Huff opened the seventh with a double off the left-centerfield fence, DiFelice bunted him to third, and Jason Tyner knocked him in with a bloop double to shallow left, tying the score at 2.

"That was definitely one of the luckiest hits of my career," Tyner said.

With the game tied in the eighth and dangerous Troy O'Leary at the plate, DiFelice made an excellent throw to second to catch Carl Everett stealing for the final out.

"Well, he was out," DiFelice said. "O'Leary's a good clutch hitter, and it was nice to leave him at the plate."

The winning rally started when Fred McGriff drew a one-out walk. Huff, who continues to impress, went with an outside pitch and singled him to third with two outs and the count full.

DiFelice, 7-for-61 since the All-Star break (and 2-for-34 in August), drove a slider to right-center.

"I was just trying to make good contact," DiFelice said. "It's a situation where we can win the ballgame. Late innings, you don't want to go down easy. You want to make the pitcher work to get you out. And it was nice that he left a slider out over the plate and I put some wood on it and it fell in the gap and we got the lead."

DiFelice was eager to give Witt, who is out of baseball after an earlier stint with Cleveland, credit for getting him focused. But he had his limits.

"I'm not going that bad that I have to ask a pitcher for hitting tips," he said. "He just has a good perspective on things."

Rekar pitched well enough over eight innings, making a mid-game adjustment to rely more on his changeup and fighting a blister on his right middle finger, to win for the first time in a month. It was his first game at home since his Aug. 20 arrest on a misdemeanor domestic battery charge and there was no discernible reaction from the crowd when his name was announced among the starters. His wife, Jamie, was in the stands watching.

Rekar gave up a pair of home runs in the third, then allowed just three other runners past first. He got out of a two-on, two-jam in the seventh when Jose Offerman flied to left.

"He just stayed with what he had to do," Rothschild said.

Hernandez finished for his 26th save.

The loss knocked the Red Sox a half-game behind Cleveland for the AL wild-card playoff berth.

It is the kind of victory the Rays hope to enjoy often during the remaining five weeks, with 28 of their final 32 games against playoff-contending teams.

"It's fun to play games that mean something," Hernandez said. "We can figure in on some of these guys. We can make it interesting."

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