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Rays Regress Vs. O's

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By MARC LANCASTER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 5, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - The reborn pitching that had served the Devil Rays so well during their best run of play this season had a relapse Tuesday night.

The untimely home run and the big inning - season-long bugaboos that had been refreshingly absent much of the past two weeks - roared back with a vengeance in the late innings. A first Rays rally to take the lead from the Orioles was wasted and a second comeback to tie the game met the same fate as the Tampa Bay bullpen caved in to give Baltimore an 8-4 victory.

Not only did the setback blunt some of the Rays' recent momentum, it also was their 82nd loss of the season - guaranteeing a losing record for the 10th consecutive year.

The Rays hadn't seen the likes of the eighth inning Dan Wheeler and Scott Dohmann put together in quite a while. Inheriting a 4-4 game from Kazmir after the Rays had tied it up in the bottom of the seventh, Wheeler was raked by Baltimore's hitters before he had a chance to settle in. Four of the five batters he faced collected singles, with one by Melvin Mora giving the Orioles a 5-4 edge before Aubrey Huff's hit at the end of that chain ended Wheeler's evening.

With the bases loaded and one out, Dohmann was charged with keeping Baltimore right there but instead saw his second delivery crushed to left-center by Ramon Hernandez. The catcher cruised into second base with a double for the second consecutive inning as three teammates raced around to score in front of him. That 8-4 deficit was sufficient to keep the Rays from manufacturing their way back, and Danys Baez closed it out with a perfect ninth.

'It's kind of frustrating, because I felt like I've been throwing the ball good, and then I go out there and do that and just kind of waste the game away,' Wheeler said. 'The way we've been playing, you can't allow that to happen.'

The Orioles were just as desperate for a victory as the Rays have been for most of the season, having dropped 12 of their last 13 games entering the evening. Losing a winnable game against a beatable team wasn't ideal with the hurdles the Rays have remaining on their schedule, but there wasn't much hand-wringing afterward.

'I'm very pleased with the way we're going about our business right now; we're playing the game right,' Rays manager Joe Maddon said. 'They beat us tonight. You're not going to win every night.'

If the Rays are losing to the Orioles, though, it's a good bet Huff has a prominent role in the script. That was the case again Tuesday, as his two-run homer of Scott Kazmir in the seventh not only drove Wheeler from the game but also pulled back some momentum that had headed the Rays' way.

Kazmir hadn't allowed a run since giving up two in the first and had done enough in the interim to allow the Rays' hitters time to scratch out three runs off Jeremy Guthrie and take the lead. But the left-hander's initial offering to Huff after walking Mora was ill-advised.

'Just a first-pitch fastball right down the middle, and that's what he's looking for,' Kazmir said.

Huff drove it 411 feet to right-center for his seventh home run against the Rays this season. He has eight against everyone else. His 3-for-4 night also followed the trend for his first full season away from the Rays. Huff is batting .393 against Tampa Bay and .258 in all other games.

'He's killing us,' Maddon said.

Huff's homer wasn't a game-winner because the Rays tied it up in the bottom of the inning. But the Rays left the potential go-ahead run on second when Delmon Young grounded out and Brendan Harris fouled out. Young was on deck when the game ended and didn't get another chance to extend his 11-game hitting streak.

Reporter Marc Lancaster can be reached at (813) 259-7227 or mlancaster@tampatrib.com.

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