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Big Loss Another Step Back

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By MARC LANCASTER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 11, 2008

Updated: 07/11/2008 12:11 am

CLEVELAND - The Rays have demonstrated repeatedly this season that they can get by just fine on their pitching and defense even if their hitters let them down.

Thursday night, the team with the best record in baseball couldn't even manage to win one-third of that equation, suffering a comprehensive breakdown in an embarrassing 13-2 loss to an Indians team that had lost 10 in a row.

The Rays' most lopsided defeat of the season, fueled by the most runs they have surrendered in any game, allowed Tampa Bay to match its longest losing streak of the season at four games.

Point a finger just about anywhere and a culprit could be found, whether a sudden absence of command by starter Andy Sonnanstine, a key misplay by Ben Zobrist or another nearly silent night with the bats.

Start with the pervasive trend in that group, an offense that has presented no threat to any opposing pitcher of late. The Rays are hitting .182 (25-of-137) as a group during their current skid, and their only runs Thursday came on a Jonny Gomes homer in the third inning.

"We're getting more into just swinging for the five-run homer as opposed to playing offense," said Rays manager Joe Maddon. "We need to start playing offense again, and when we score runs in a variety of different ways we're always better. Right now, we're just scoring runs via the home run - and not frequently, either. I think we're getting away from our game plan a little bit and we're just trying to get too big."

Trying, perhaps, but not succeeding. That was left to the Indians, who entered the game with fewer hits than anyone in the American League and managed to pound out 15.

Sonnanstine had allowed only two hits through four innings and seemed in command before he lost his touch. When that happens to some pitchers, they walk the house. When it happens to Sonnanstine, he mostly gets raked. That tendency manifested itself Thursday in the Ohio native allowing three homers in a 10-batter span.

"Blood in the water," was how Sonnanstine described the frenzy that erupted.

It was exactly the kind of display the teetering Rays couldn't afford, and all the more disappointing given they have been able to lean on Sonnanstine in times of trouble. The team had won his last seven starts.

"This one's real frustrating for a bunch of reasons," Sonnanstine said. "We'd dropped three games coming into this series and I kind of pride myself on being a stopper, and hometown family and friends in the stands - to get beat like that, in a blowout, is never a good feeling."

It should be noted that Sonnanstine had a chance to escape before things got out of hand in the fifth, but he was let down by his defense. He appeared to have found his way out of a first-and-third mess when Jamey Carroll tapped one back to the mound. Sonnanstine gloved it and threw to second for one out, but Zobrist's relay to first was off-target, sending Carlos Pena sprawling off the bag as the go-ahead run scored.

"That put them on top, but I don't know that we could have come back," Maddon said. "They just kept adding on, hitting home runs, and we didn't do a very good job of keeping them in check."

The Rays' showing segued from unfortunate to abominable in the eighth at the hands of Gary Glover. Entering a 6-2 game, Glover gave up a leadoff homer to Casey Blake and retired two of the 10 batters he faced. Cleveland scored seven times, sending his ERA rocketing from 4.05 to 5.82.

In continuing to project calm despite his team's recent woes, Maddon pinned his hopes on the fact that the team's top starters will take the ball in the final games before the All-Star break.

"We've got to do better offensively and we've got James Shields, Matt Garza, Scott Kazmir coming up right now," he said, "so that gives us a pretty nice chance of straightening things out."

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

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