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Mariners Put Rays On Wrong End Of Walk-Off This Time, 2-1

The Associated Press

Dan Wheeler walks off the mound after giving up the game-winning home run to Raul Ibanez on Thursday night.

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By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 8, 2008

SEATTLE - This time, the Rays were on the other end of a home-plate celebration.

A day after pulling out a stirring walk-off victory against the Indians, the Rays opened their longest road trip of the season by falling in similar fashion, 2-1, to a Mariners team with the worst record in the American League.

After Seattle finally solved Andy Sonnanstine in the eighth inning, pushing across a run to tie the game, Raul Ibanez led off the ninth with a game-ending homer off Dan Wheeler. It was a no-doubt laser down the right-field line on a split-fingered fastball Wheeler had hoped would strike out Ibanez on a 1-2 count.

"I was just trying to put him away, see if I could get him to swing and miss," said Wheeler. "Just kind of hung it up there – and he's been hot, too. Part of the [pregame pitchers'] meeting was, 'Don't let that guy beat you,' so that makes it even worse, but for me, I don't feel like there's one guy that I can't go after and get out. I just made a bad pitch."

The final offering of the game was one of the few to meet that description Thursday night, as most of the tidy two-hour, nine-minute affair was devoted to a clinic put on by starters Andy Sonnanstine and Felix Hernandez.

The right-handers, whose styles could hardly be more different, surrendered a lone run apiece as the game raced into the eighth inning. While that kind of showing isn't necessarily surprising from a pitcher as gifted as Hernandez, the dominance displayed by Sonnanstine was notable.

He handled the Mariners masterfully most of the way, setting a club record by retiring 17 consecutive batters from the second through seventh innings. Esteban Yan held the previous mark of 16 at Detroit on July 26, 2000.

"To be honest with you, I didn't notice it," said Sonnanstine. "But any time you're challenging guys and getting them out, you don't want to change too many things. I felt like I was very aggressive tonight, probably the most aggressive I've been in a while, so I think that's a good sign."

Fourteen outs in Sonnanstine's run – which was bookended by a double and a single from Jose Lopez – came on strikeouts or balls that didn't leave the infield, as he prevented a Mariners lineup that hasn't quite been blown up for rebuilding from making solid contact with much of anything.

Seattle didn't start hitting him hard until the eighth, which Wladimir Balentien opened with a double hammered off the wall in right-center. The Rays kept him from scoring on the Bryan LaHair single that followed, but Yuniesky Betancourt tied the game on a sacrifice fly.

That was it for Sonnanstine, who was lifted at 85 pitches in favor of Trever Miller as lefty-hitting Ichiro Suzuki and Jeremy Reed were waiting at the top of the order. Miller did his job, keeping pinch-runner Miguel Cairo entrenched at second base with a groundout and a strikeout.

"Andy was wonderful, and their guy was very good also," said Rays manager Joe Maddon. "They put it together rather quickly there when Balentien hit the double, but Trever got us out of the jam and I thought we had a pretty good shot there in the ninth. We just didn't get it done."

The Rays' only run was cobbled together in the fourth inning. Carl Crawford led off with a walk and moved around to second on Evan Longoria's single off Hernandez. Carlos Pena then shuttled Crawford to third by grounding into a forceout, and the speedster scampered home on a wild pitch with Cliff Floyd at the plate.

The fourth was one of only two innings that saw the Rays put multiple runners on base against the intimidating Hernandez. They couldn't convert a leadoff double by Dioner Navarro and one-out walk by Ben Zobrist into anything in the third.

That was about it, though. It wasn't a case of the Rays stranding runners throughout the game, which had been their primary issue during a lengthy recent slump; they just couldn't get anyone on against Hernandez.

That changed momentarily when J.J. Putz entered for the ninth. After Crawford flied out, Putz drilled Longoria on the right hand with a pitch (X-rays were negative and Longoria expects to play tonight). Pena then singled him around to third, giving the Rays the opportunity they craved.

But Putz struck out Floyd on a 98-mph fastball, leaving the big man 1-for-17 with runners in scoring position and less than two outs this season, before making Dioner Navarro look bad swinging through an 88-mph offering to end the threat.

Floyd took issue with one call from home-plate umpire Mike Muchlinski, saying a 2-0 pitch from Putz he thought was outside was called a strike, but he ultimately gave the hard-throwing reliever his best shot on a high heater.

"As a pitcher, you're taking your chances throwing 98 miles an hour," said Floyd. "Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Today I lost and we lost. Frustrating day, after Sonny put a display on. Hang with 'em."

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

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