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Joe Kennedy pitches seven innings in earning a 1-0 victory over Toronto.
By MARC TOPKIN
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 24, 2001
TORONTO -- Most games, you can see the Rays' flaws. Their youth, inexperience or inability -- or some combination -- shows through, and even though they win sometimes, the shortcomings are usually obvious.
But there are some days, such as Sunday, when it all comes together, when you get a glimpse of what it is supposed to look like, of how it can work.
A dominating seven innings from Joe Kennedy. Stellar defense all around the field. A key hit, a first-inning homer by Steve Cox that stands up. A relatively uneventful and somewhat impressive closing performance by Esteban Yan.
And -- for the first time this season -- a 1-0 victory.
"An old-fashioned ballgame," manager Hal McRae said. "And a little obsolete, 1-0, especially in the American League."
The Rays won the game -- the seventh 1-0 game in the AL this season -- because they did all of the things they had been doing wrong right. It doesn't necessarily signify a conversion as much as a coincidence, but it still provides some hope.
"What makes a team good is being able to win games in different ways," second baseman Brent Abernathy said. "We won a defense-and-pitching battle today.
"Earlier in the series, we won with hitting. We've got to learn what it takes to win, and we're getting there. This is a big win for us."
The Rays won their first series since Aug. 21-23 against Baltimore and their fourth on the road for the season. And when you consider the Rays led 5-0 in the game they lost, it wasn't too bad of a weekend.
"It could have been better, but we'll take what we got," McRae said.
"We've said this before, but two out of three ain't bad."
Kennedy, the 22-year-old rookie left-hander, wasn't overpowering. But he did a tremendous job of throwing the ball where he wanted to and getting outs when he needed to.
"Awesome," rookie catcher Paul Hoover said. "He threw his fastball to both sides of the plate, and he was throwing a lot of changeups down in the zone to keep them off balance. He did a great job."
Kennedy, who allowed four hits and only two runners past first, improved to 6-8 (3-0 in his past five starts) and said he considered the outing among the best of his 18 big-league games.
"The main thing was that I was able to throw strikes," he said. "I was able to keep the ball down and had a lot of groundball outs.
"I was able to get ahead, and I was able to do what I wanted to do out there."
He also got some help. Shortstop Chris Gomez made a handful of impressive plays. Rightfielder Ben Grieve, who has had problems all year in the field, made a running catch of a sinking liner.
And Abernathy, who could not complete double plays in two key situations Saturday, hung in despite the impending arrival of bullish Raul Mondesi and turned a key one in the seventh inning Sunday.
"I went into it with the mind-set that (Saturday) I was concerned with where the runner was and what my feet were doing," Abernathy said.
"And today, I said, for lack of a better term, 'Screw it. I'm going to let him hit me, but I'm going to turn the double play.' And I ended up getting the job done."
Kelvim Escobar was equally impressive for the Jays. "Some of the nastiest stuff we've seen all year," Abernathy said.
Cox sent a 3-and-1 fastball on a searing line drive into the rightfield seats with two outs in the first, but Escobar allowed only three hits after that while striking out nine in seven innings.
"Usually, 1-0 in the first isn't 1-0 in the ninth," Cox said.
McRae pulled Kennedy after seven innings (and 85 pitches), not wanting anything to spoil his splendid day.
He went straight to Yan, who had converted only one of five saves when asked to pitch two or more innings.
Yan survived a leadoff infield single by pinch-hitter Tony Fernandez (and a stolen base by pinch-runner Homer Bush) in the eighth, getting Brad Fullmer and Jose Cruz on flyouts and striking out Alex Gonzalez.
Yan got Shannon Stewart on a grounder to open the ninth and benefited from a check-swing appeal to strike out Carlos Delgado. After he walked Mondesi, Felipe Lopez sent his 1-and-2 pitch high and deep to rightfield. But Grieve caught it a few feet in front of the warning track.
"The last pitch scared me," Yan said. I said, 'Oh, no. Not now."'
Not now. It was too perfect of a day for that.