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Big inning boosts Rays to 6-1 victory

Jays starter Kelvim Escobar gives up 6 runs in the second, and Tampa Bay starter Bryan Rekar earns his 2nd straight win.

By KEVIN KELLY

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 29, 2001

ST. PETERSBURG -- The body language gave it away.

Stuck in what must have seemed an endless second inning against the Rays on Friday at Tropicana Field, Toronto starting pitcher Kelvim Escobar repeatedly glanced to his team's dugout in search of relief.

The desperate looks, the drooping head, did not go unnoticed in what became a 6-1 victory for Tampa Bay before the second-smallest home crowd of the season.

"When you see a pitcher's head down, you know you've just got to keep taking it to him until he gives up," third baseman Jared Sandberg said. "When you see that, then you get that next big hit and put him out of his misery."

Without a legitimate power hitter, Tampa Bay must try to win with a pesky style of baseball: slapping singles and doubles, stealing bases, bunting and swinging at only the best pitches and hoping the starting pitchers can go at least six innings.

But what often takes nine innings for the offense to accomplish came in 33 pitches for the Rays during their victory before 10,586. Tampa Bay did everything except hit a home run in the decisive second inning, scoring six runs and sending Escobar to the showers after 53 pitches and four outs.

The victory assured the Rays of going three consecutive series without losing one for the first time this season.

"We did everything exactly right," manager Hal McRae said.

The Rays managed 3 doubles, 3 walks, 1 sacrifice bunt, 1 single and 1 triple off Escobar (6-8) in the second.

Steve Cox and Aubrey Huff each hit run-scoring doubles, Felix Martinez hit a two-run triple and Toby Hall had a double and a run-scoring single in the inning.

"The patience at the plate made it all possible," McRae said. "We didn't waste many hits that inning. It wasn't a three-hit scenario to get a run."

It was the shortest start of Escobar's 75-start career and came five days after he held the Rays to one run in seven innings.

"We have to find out what's wrong with him," Toronto manager Buck Martinez said of Escobar, who has experienced some tightness in his forearm. "He can't operate like this. We can't operate with him like this."

The Rays' big inning gave starter Bryan Rekar (3-13) the comfort of knowing he could make a mistake or two.

But Rekar didn't make many bad pitches in his final start of the season and possibly his last in a Rays uniform.

Winless in his first seven starts of the season, Rekar pitched into the seventh before he was pulled in favor of Travis Phelps. He allowed one run on five hits to win consecutive games for the first time since April 1999.

"The end has been a lot better than the first 140 games," he said. "It's something to build on."

The lone run charged to Rekar, reluctant to come out in the seventh when McRae came to the mound, was a leadoff homer by third baseman Felipe Lopez.

"The last two games he's gone out and pitched, changed speeds," McRae said. "He's pitching instead of throwing. He's changed speeds on his sinker. He's changed speeds on his slider ... which has helped him a great deal."

Phelps relieved Rekar with two on and nobody out and pitched three scoreless innings for his fifth save. Their combined effort continued a string of solid performances. Rays pitchers have allowed just earned runs in the past five games and have a 2.08 ERA in their past nine. "We're getting through the sixth and into the seventh, so they've given us innings," McRae said. "Maybe the additional days off is the reason. But they've gone deeper since the off days we received."

If there was anything to be disappointed about, it was that the Rays didn't score another run after the second inning. Four Blue Jays relievers held Tampa Bay to three hits the rest of the game.

But for a team that is three losses from its first 100-loss season, wins of any kind are welcome.

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