TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Royals Pitcher Meche Too Much For Rays

ADVERTISEMENT

By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 24, 2008

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - With the Red Sox and Yankees set to face off at Fenway Park over the next three days, the Rays' four-game set against the Royals that opened Thursday night represents an opportunity to create a bit of space.

Let the two heavyweights beat each other up over the weekend; if the Rays do what they're supposed to do and handle the lowly Royals, they could have a bit more breathing room before dipping back into the division for a trip to Toronto next week.

In this case, doing what the Rays are supposed to do probably means winning at least three out of four, and after Thursday night's 4-2 loss they'll have to take the rest of the series to hit that mark. Technically speaking, the Rays remain percentage points ahead of the idle Red Sox in first place, but that isn't the direction they wanted to go in the series opener.

Facing a Kansas City squad that was just outscored 33-6 by the Tigers in a three-game sweep at Kauffman Stadium, the Rays weren't exactly at their sharpest. Their offense continued to slumber, shut down by Gil Meche over seven innings before pushing across a couple against the bullpen, and Matt Garza was just off-kilter enough to hand the Royals what proved to be an insurmountable advantage.

"I just felt kind of out of whack," said Garza. "It was weird – I couldn't find a consistent rhythm."

Manager Joe Maddon concurred, saying Garza "was just not in sync at all."

While the issue of run production remains the Rays' primary big-picture concern, Garza's showing Thursday was somewhat unexpected. Coming off a stellar outing at home against Roy Halladay and the Blue Jays in which he allowed only two hits in 7 2/3 scoreless innings, the right-hander saw a Royals run cross the plate before he had recorded the second out of the game.

David DeJesus led off the bottom of the first with a single and Mike Aviles followed with one of his own, allowing the speedy leadoff man to motor into third base. Mark Grudzielanek brought him home with a sacrifice fly before Evan Longoria started a nifty double play to end the inning.

The fourth inning proved his undoing, however. After retiring Jose Guillen on a groundout, Garza saw the next five batters reach base. Along the way, he showed some signs of frustration, most notably when Ross Gload's single up the middle allowed Alex Gordon to score on a close play at the plate. B.J. Upton's throw to a blocking Dioner Navarro was there, and Navarro had his foot down to block the plate, but Gordon appeared to slide in safely, as home-plate umpire Tom Hallion ruled.

Garza had some words for Hallion as he walked back to the mound, then saw his troubles multiply when John Buck got jammed but managed to fist the ball down the right-field line for a two-run double, making it 4-0 Royals. When Mitch Maier followed with an infield single made possible by Garza not getting over to cover the bag in time to receive a throw from Carlos Pena, it appeared a full meltdown might be in order. But Garza pulled it together and got out of the inning, then made it through the fifth despite allowing two more base-runners.

For the first time in 45 big-league appearances, Garza failed to strike out a single batter in his five innings, while issuing four walks. He looked uncomfortable enough that Maddon asked him following the fifth inning if he felt all right physically. Garza responded that nothing hurt; he just felt "weird" out on the mound.

"I came in here and I said it's a great game when you can go lights-out for one outing and five days later not even know where the strike zone is," said Garza. "But stuff like that happens and I've got five days to get it right."

The Rays have been trying to iron out the kinks in their offense much longer than that without making much headway. They had some early chances Thursday against Meche, putting two runners on in the first two innings and forcing the right-hander to burn through a hefty number of pitches. But they couldn't get a run across the plate and Meche settled in.

"We just didn't get it done," said Maddon. "I think everybody's trying to get it done all at once. Let's see if we can bunch some hits up and get more on a line and hard on the ground as opposed to fly balls. Fly balls in this yard, they just die. More than anything, I'd just like to see us get back to our line-drive approach, and it's going to happen."

Oddly enough, the only Rays player who did much of anything at the plate Thursday was the guy they wanted back so desperately for his glove, Jason Bartlett. The ninth-place hitter collected two singles and a double in his first game off the disabled list. Bartlett scored the Rays' first run, doubling in the eighth off Ron Mahay and moving up a base each on successive groundouts by Akinori Iwamura and Upton. But the Rays were too far gone for it to matter by then.

Even after Longoria opened the ninth with a double off All-Star closer Joakim Soria – who blew a save at Tropicana Field earlier this month – the Rays couldn't summon the big hit as the rain began to fall around them. Pena followed with a single to center that positioned Longoria to score on a Cliff Floyd sacrifice fly, but Soria retired Navarro and struck out Eric Hinske to end it.

Having watched his teammates flail away in frustration for the last couple of weeks, Bartlett can empathize even if he doesn't quite have a handle on a possible solution.

"Granted, [Meche] threw well tonight, but we're also missing a lot of pitches," said Bartlett. "It's never fun when you get a good pitch to hit and you don't hit it. I think we've just got to relax and it's going to turn around."

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

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT