TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Royals' Tomfoolery Aids Rays' Cause

Photo courtesy Kansas City Star

Members of the Tampa Bay Rays sit out a rain delay in the dugout in the fifth inning.

ADVERTISEMENT

By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 27, 2008

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Rays have made their own breaks most of the time this season, coming up with the big hit or the big out when necessary without too much assistance from the opposition.

The script flipped a bit Saturday, as the kind of tomfoolery in the field that for so long was a staple of Tampa Bay teams and a clutch hit by Carl Crawford turned a stalemate into a 5-3 Rays win. But even as the Rays were in the midst of receiving a gift from the Royals in the top of the eighth, a lack of awareness of the situation nearly rendered it moot.

"We just got lucky tonight," Rays manager Joe Maddon said.

Kansas City reliever Horacio Ramirez was cruising in the eighth, having retired all eight men he had faced since coming on following a rain delay. With two outs and the bases empty, Akinori Iwamura singled solidly up the middle for the Rays' first hit since the fourth.

That brought B.J. Upton to the plate, and he appeared to have been the latest Ray to strand a runner as he popped one up to shallow right field. Mark Grudzielanek appeared to have a bead on it, but suddenly looked lost as the ball turned back toward the middle of the field. Jose Guillen was too far away to help and the ball dropped to the turf.

"I thought it was a routine out," said Upton. "When I looked up I saw Guillen kind of in-between with it and Grudzielanek was kind of looking at him to come get it. I didn't know it was going to drop, but I knew it was going to be trouble."

Though there were two outs, Iwamura seemed to assume the ball would be caught and wasn't running anywhere close to full speed. Iwamura accelerated between second and third once he realized what had happened, but he was forced to stop short there as Guillen came up firing toward the plate.

"He just didn't run hard enough," said Maddon.

Iwamura told the Japanese media he blamed himself and was embarrassed about the play.

The way the Rays had been going offensively, a failure to score there was not a good sign. But Crawford, who entered the evening 1-for-35 in his previous eight games away from Tropicana Field, came up big. He shot a ball into the gap in right-center for his second triple of the game, scoring Iwamura and Upton.

"It feels good to hit the ball hard and get the base hit when we really needed it," said Crawford. "It was just good to be able to contribute."

A homer from Carlos Pena in the ninth then provided a bit of a cushion for the second consecutive night, and Troy Percival once again helped himself to a corner of it. The closer allowed one run in the bottom half before closing out his 22nd save.

The end result was what the Rays wanted, but Maddon's postgame message was pointed.

"We should have scored on the bloop," Maddon said. "We got a break and then Carl had to come up with the triple to take advantage of it. It should have been taken advantage of prior to that. If we're going to win this thing, we can't make plays like that."

The game was delayed for 73 minutes in the middle of the fifth as a line of strong thunderstorms swept through the area, dumping a prodigious amount of rain on Kauffman Stadium.

Despite the relatively lengthy delay, Scott Kazmir returned to the mound for the bottom of the fifth when the game resumed. The Rays led 2-1 at the time, and a scoreless frame would have qualified him for the win. He appeared on his way after retiring the first two batters, but Grudzielanek's third consecutive double followed by a Guillen single tied the game.

"I know it was a long time, but he was throwing regularly in the cage to simulate staying hot, and I thought he would be fine," said Maddon. "If he had a quicker inning, I probably would have let him go out for the sixth inning, also."

Instead, the bullpens took over and dueled until the bloop opened the door for the Rays to bump their lead on the Red Sox up to two games.

Though Maddon was upset about the way the key play went down, everyone seemed encouraged by the timely hit that followed. Crawford has underachieved offensively much of the season, and the hope is that his two triples Saturday might provide some sort of springboard.

As it was, the first of them – in the first inning off Royals starter Luke Hochevar – put Crawford in pretty select company. The three-bagger was the 80th of his career, making him the first player since Hall of Famer Arky Vaughan in 1939 to hit that many triples before his 27th birthday.

That's a nice bit of trivia, but his 81st career triple was far more meaningful. Crawford almost didn't get a chance at it, as on the first pitch of the key at-bat he sliced one down the left-field line that Esteban German – an infielder by trade – couldn't come up with as he spun up against the wall in foul territory.

Crawford hammered the next offering from Ramirez into the gap in right-center and the Rays had what they needed.

"It seemed like the ball just bounced our way tonight," said Crawford.

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

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT