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Longoria Puts The Hammer To Jays

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By IRA KAUFMAN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 20, 2008

Updated: 07/20/2008 12:12 am

ST. PETERSBURG - Good fortune combined with outstanding starting pitching and an extraordinary at-bat by Evan Longoria on a historic evening for the revived Rays.

Stretching its lead against Boston to 11/2 games in the AL East, Tampa Bay downed Toronto 6-4 Saturday night behind Matt Garza's masterful outing and Longoria's grand slam against fellow All-Star Roy Halladay.

"Tonight goes back to what we were doing during the first half of the season - winning any way we can," said Longoria, who fouled consecutive pitches off his tender left ankle before Halladay left a pitch up. "It was one of my more prouder at-bats."

The Rays broke a scoreless tie with five sixth-inning runs and held off a ninth-inning comeback bid to record their 38th home win of the season, eclipsing last year's total as a crowd of 32,669 roared in approval before rapper MC Hammer hit the stage for a postgame concert.

After a seven-game losing streak that knocked them out of first place, the Rays have responded with consecutive wins after the All-Star break, improving to 38-14 at Tropicana Field.

"When I was with the Angels, we didn't like coming in here," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. "Why not make this into a homefield advantage? Garza was spectacular today. He had good command of his fastball and some really good hooks."

Halladay (11-7) entered the fateful sixth with a one-hitter, having allowed only Dioner Navarro's third-inning single. By the time Halladay trudged off the mound, the Rays had added six soft singles and one loud home run.

Friday night's hero, Ben Zobrist, triggered the outburst by bouncing a single over the head of shortstop Marco Scutaro. Aki Iwamura reached on a perfect bunt down the third-base line and Carl Crawford's swinging bunt rolled fair off a pebble, loading the bases.

Yes, a pebble.

"It was a good ballgame until the bad call, with the ball up the line," Toronto manager Cito Gaston said. "He just missed the call. It was frustrating."

There was more heartache to come.

Carlos Pena's flare to left center drove in the game's first run and after Eric Hinske struck out looking, Halladay was cruelly reminded Longoria is no ordinary rookie. Longoria capped a riveting at-bat by launching Halladay's 10th pitch of the duel over the left-field wall for his 17th home run and first career grand slam.

When Longoria reached the dugout, he was greeted by a jubilant Garza (8-5), who faced only one batter more than the minimum through the first six innings.

"I was able to make big pitches tonight," said Garza, who yielded only two hits while striking out six in his 72/3 innings. "I tip my cap to the offense tonight ... they came up clutch."

Scott Rolen's bloop single in the third inning represented Toronto's lone base runner until Scutaro singled leading off the seventh. Garza, who has allowed three earned runs or less in 14 of his 18 starts, didn't issue a walk as the Rays improved to 7-1 against the Blue Jays.

Four relievers finished up, but Tampa Bay's shutout bid ended in the ninth when Scutaro lashed a two-run single off Al Reyes. Dan Wheeler came on with two aboard and one out, registering a save three batters later by inducing Rolen to foul out with a runner on second.

Toronto's frustration had surfaced an inning earlier when reliever Brandon League was ejected in the eighth, two batters after surrendering a leadoff homer to Cliff Floyd that made it 6-0.

League was tossed for hitting Navarro, who had bunted for a single in the sixth with Tampa Bay ahead by five runs.

"I really disagree with what they did," Maddon said. "We'll stop trying to score runs when they do. Maybe in 1922 you wouldn't do that bunt because people didn't hit home runs. But it's 2008. It stunk."

Reporter Ira Kaufman can be reached at (813) 259-7833 or ikaufman@tampatrib.com.

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