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Rekar leads Rays to 7-4 win

Tampa Bay hits three home runs to rally past the Blue Jays.

By MARC TOPKIN

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 22, 2001

TORONTO -- Usually you hear about the one that got away. Friday night, Bryan Rekar was excited about the "1" that went away.

Rekar won for the second time this season and the first time since June 13, as the Rays beat the Blue Jays 7-4.

And a Rekar victory wasn't the only unusual sight of the night. The Rays hit three homers in a game for the first time since Sept. 1. They hit a three-run homer (by Toby Hall in the sixth) for the first time since Aug. 21. And they rallied from a 4-3 fifth-inning deficit for the victory.

"It was a much needed win; we haven't had many of those lately," manager Hal McRae said. "And it was a nice come-from-behind win; we haven't had many of those all year."

Coming off a 2000 season in which he posted a 7-10 record, pitched a career-high 1731/3 innings and earned a raise to $1.4-million, Rekar expected big things, as did the Rays.

Instead it was mid-June before he won his first game, and he lived the past three months (including five weeks on the disabled list) with a stark 1 in the victory column beside his name.

"Yeah it bugged me," Rekar said. "But I didn't deserve too many more the way I was pitching. But my teammates picked me up today and I'm grateful for that, and it was nice to get that 1 out of the way."

Rekar wasn't great, allowing seven hits and four runs over 62/3 innings, but he kept the Rays in the game and got out of it with the lead intact.

The key was a two-seam fastball that had wicked movement. "It looks like a good pitch to hit and it isn't; it's an illusion," Hall said. "When he throws them 7 inches off the plate, no one swings at them. So I was telling him to throw it down the middle and it looks like a good pitch to hit and people roll over on it or pop out."

"He made a contribution tonight, so he feels good about that," McRae said. "He proved something to himself, so he feels good about that. And when he goes out for his next start, he'll take more confidence to the mound, so I'll feel good about that."

Doug Creek finished the seventh, Travis Phelps breezed through the eighth and Esteban Yan worked a clean ninth to record the team's second save in its past 30 games.

The Jays broke on top with one run in the second (leaving two men on), two more in the third on a homer by Shannon Stewart and a fourth in the fourth.

The Rays got one back on Russ Johnson's leadoff homer in the third and closed to 4-3 in the fifth when Ben Grieve, Aubrey Huff and Johnson struck consecutive doubles, the last a blatant misplay by Toronto rightfielder Raul Mondesi.

Hall, moved to the cleanup spot with Greg Vaughn out of the lineup, had the big hit in the sixth off Toronto rookie Brandon Lyon. Brent Abernathy and Steve Cox opened the inning with singles, and Hall drove the first pitch over the leftfield fence.

It was a welcome reprieve for Hall, who twice failed Thursday with the go-ahead run in scoring position in Boston.

"All year I felt like when I would get in situations like last night I would succeed, and sometimes you don't," he said. "Lately I haven't been aggressive and I've been getting myself out. That's my game, to stay aggressive. The frustrating part is when you get out of your game."

Grieve added a homer in the eighth, his 11th of the season. Grieve is hitting .343 for the month and has raised his season average to .254, its highest since May 31.

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