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New starter goes 7 strong in a 2-1 victory over the Royals.
By JOHN ROMANO
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 1, 2000
ST. PETERSBURG -- Slowly, the word will spread. Team to team, player to player, even umpire to umpire. Paul Wilson is back.
A forgotten phenom after three shoulder and elbow operations in four years, Wilson has re-emerged with the Devil Rays in the past month.
Making his second major-league start since 1996, Wilson pitched seven innings of one-run ball Thursday as the Rays beat the Royals 2-1 before an announced 13,608 at Tropicana Field.
Bobby Smith hit a two-out double in the eighth and Tony Fiore pitched one inning of relief to get his first major-league victory. Roberto Hernandez finished it for his eighth save in a row and 28th of the season.
As good as Wilson was in August -- he had a 1.96 ERA in 23 innings -- the Rays are even more enthused about having him for a full season in 2001.
"You'd have to be crazy not be excited when you see how he can pitch and the stuff he has," manager Larry Rothschild said. "He's at a point in his career where he knows it's time to put it together physically."
Acquired from the Mets on July 29 as part of the Bubba Trammell and Rick White deal, Wilson had not pitched in the majors since 1996. He had been on one long rehabilitation assignment after shoulder surgery in '96, shoulder surgery again in '98 and elbow surgery in '99.
The Rays were not even sure Wilson, 27, was going to stay with the big-league club when they acquired him, thinking he might be better off pitching regularly at Triple A. He convinced them quickly, and now his comeback is beginning to make noise around the league.
"In the second inning, the home plate umpire (Randy Marsh) came up and said, "It's nice to see you back.' That made me feel good. Somewhere along the line, maybe he read something or saw something or heard what I have gone through," Wilson said. "It's not like I want people to have sympathy for me, but it's nice to know that maybe some people out there have paid attention to the hard work that I've had to put in."
If the Royals had not seen or heard about Wilson, they knew by the end of Thursday's game. Mixing in sliders, curves and changeups with his fastball, Wilson needed only 88 pitches to get through seven innings. In his two starts, Wilson has given up one run in 13 innings.
"He has great stuff. He does an outstanding job working the plate," Rays catcher Mike DiFelice said. "He works outside, he works inside, he mixes in breaking balls and everything is right around the strike zone. He knows what he's doing out there. He shook me off a couple of times tonight because he knew how he wanted to go after a guy.
"You're real happy for a guy who has an opportunity to come back from a lot of adversity."
The Rays needed everything Wilson had because they were not providing a lot of offense themselves. For the 13th time in 17 games, Tampa Bay scored three runs or fewer. Remarkably, the Rays are 8-9 during the offensive drought.
Things are going so poorly, even when the Rays score they manage to disappoint.
Trailing 1-0 in the sixth, the Rays loaded the bases with no outs on singles by Steve Cox and Greg Vaughn and a walk to Fred McGriff.
Smith, in a 1-for-26 slump, got ahead of Jeff Suppan 3-and-1, then swung at a pitch a foot out of the strike zone. On the next pitch, he hit a hard grounder to short that was turned into a double play.
The tying run scored, but the rally was all but killed.
Two innings later, Smith got a second chance. Cox, who went 3-for-3, led off with a walk and was replaced by pinch-runner Jason Tyner. Tyner stole second and went to third on a grounder to bring up Smith.
"Bobby likes to hit in situations with the game on the line. He's one of those guys who has pretty good at-bats in those situations," Rothschild said. "Obviously a guy wants to be hot when he walks up there in those situations, but that's not always going to be the case. What better way to get things going than to get a big hit."
Smith drove the ball to deep right-center for his first extra-base hit in nine days.
"I want to be in those situations," Smith said. "Most people don't expect you to come through with the game on the line, so I like it up there."