|
Hurts So GoodBy JOHN ROMANO © St. Petersburg Times, published April 1, 1998 The first major-league baseball game in Tampa Bay history fell far short of the fairy-tale wishes. It was long and it was disappointing. Five innings into the team's existence, the Devil Rays were down 11-0 to the Detroit Tigers. By the time it ended 11-6, a good portion of the 45,369 fans had made their first early exit from Tropicana Field. While losing the game, though, the Rays did not lose perspective. "Everybody had been looking forward to this day -- the fans, the players, everyone involved. So when you get down early like that, it is going to be depressing," Rays catcher John Flaherty said. "And you know what? This is going to happen to us again during the year. "But we'll put our licking on someone else as well." The Rays did make a late show of it, putting six straight batters on base and scoring four runs in the ninth. The game ended with the bases loaded and the tying run on deck. But that hope was fleeting, compared with the eight tortuous innings that preceded it. Starting pitcher Wilson Alvarez, signed to a $35-million, five-year contract in the off-season, did not make it out of the third inning in his first Opening Day start. He gave up hits to nine of the 16 batters he faced. "I let the people down today," Alvarez said. "Next time, hopefully, it will be better." So this is the American League? The tradition. The pageantry. The butt-whippings. The Rays come into the 1998 season knowing they do not have the power to slug it out with the AL bullies. To win -- they've said over and over -- the Rays need to play good defense, play aggressively on offense and play smart. But above all, they need good pitching. Without it, they were doomed Tuesday. Down 4-0 in the second. Down 6-0 in the third. Down 11-0 in the fifth. Down and out soon after. "I didn't think we played a poor game. We just got beat," said Larry Rothschild, who made his regular-season debut as a manager. "A lot of times it will come down to pitching, and tonight we just got beat. That's going to happen. It was one of those nights." The outfield at Tropicana supposedly is the largest in baseball for stadiums with artificial surfaces. Judging from how exhausted Rays outfielders looked after the game, that assessment is probably accurate. The Rays were running down doubles in leftfield. Doubles in rightfield. Doubles in center. It was enough to make you want to down a double afterward. In all, the Tigers had seven extra-base hits, and every hitter in the lineup reached base safely. With Tigers ace Justin Thompson on the mound, the big lead became an even bigger hurdle. Thompson worked six innings, and his only major mistake was a two-run homer by Rays third baseman Wade Boggs. "He's a good enough pitcher -- just like Wilson -- that he knows to throw strikes in that situation," Rays shortstop Kevin Stocker said. "He got them into the seventh inning and that's what he wanted to do." Even with Alvarez's poor outing, the Rays had a glimmer of hope. Dan Carlson got them out of the third-inning jam and pitched a flawless fourth. But the game got out of hand in the fifth when Damion Easley led off with a single and Tampa native Luis Gonzalez followed with the first home run in Tropicana Field history. Detroit scored three more in the inning. If the Rays are looking for positives, the ninth-inning rally is a good place to start. It falls under the too-little, too-late category, but it also is an indication they are not going to pack it in. "Even when we were down 11-2, the bench was loud," said reliever Jim Mecir, who threw a scoreless ninth. "The guys were cheering. They were ready to go. Nobody was acting like it was over." Flaherty led the inning off with a single, and pinch-hitter Bobby Smith -- in his first major league at-bat -- followed with a single off the leg of pitcher Bryce Florie. Pinch-hitter Bubba Trammell walked, and Quinton McCracken and Miguel Cairo each had run-scoring singles. A bases-loaded walk to Boggs drove in a run. Another scored when Mike Kelly reached on an error. The game ended, however, when Paul Sorrento struck out. "This team is not going to quit, I can tell you that," Rothschild said. "Throughout this year, no matter what happens, we will not quit. Tonight was an indication of that." If nothing else, the rally gave the remaining fans a reason to cheer and a reason to leave with some optimism. They gave the Rays a hearty ovation after the final out. "You feel bad because you want to go out and win that first game. You want it on any Opening Day, but especially today," Stocker said. "The guys all wanted to get the first hit, the first RBI ... but obviously it didn't work out. Instead of getting our first win, we got our first loss. "Hey, that's going to happen." If the Rays were overly depressed, it did not show in the clubhouse. The mood was quiet but hardly somber. Consider this the first lesson of major-league baseball: Games remain nearly every day for the next six months. A loss may hurt, but it cannot afford to linger. "I've been through this schedule. It's 162 games and we've got 161 left," Rothschild said. "They hurt whenever this happens." Tonight's game Rays vs. Tigers, 7:05, Tropicana Field, WFLA-AM 970, WWJB-AM 1450.
Business |
Citrus |
Commentary |
Entertainment
|
Home
T. PETERSBURG -- Tampa Bay fans had waited 22 years for this game to begin. And then many couldn't wait for that sucker to end.
