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Rays Solve Pitching Puzzle

Tribune photo by ROBERT BURKE

Kazmir went 5-1 with a 1.22 ERA in six starts last month, striking out 38 in 37 innings.

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By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 3, 2008

Updated: 06/03/2008 12:22 am

ST. PETERSBURG - Carl Crawford doesn't need to look at a stat sheet to know how much better Tampa Bay's starting pitchers have been this season compared with past years.

To him and his teammates, the difference can be measured in terms of the confidence they have in their starters to keep them in - if not dominate - just about every game.

"You went from, 'Who's pitching today?' to just, 'What time does the game start?'" Crawford said. "You've got five solid pitchers in there that can get it done, so starting pitching is not even a question. You're not really worried about it like you used to."

Make no mistake - last year and in previous seasons, there was a certain level of expectation in place depending on which pitcher was scheduled to take the ball on a given day.

Scott Kazmir or James Shields? The rest of the Rays felt pretty good about their chances.

Jae Seo or Casey Fossum? Uh, when do Kazmir and Shields pitch again?

The days of dreading this turn or that in the starting rotation are gone. After two months of consistently solid starting pitching, the Rays have become accustomed to assuming that their pitchers will, at the very least, keep the opposition within arm's length.

"All you really ask them to do is give you a chance to win the ballgame, to keep you in the ballgame," pitching coach Jim Hickey said. "I think there's really only been two or three times where we didn't really have a chance to win the ballgame, and if we can continue that, we'll certainly be in great shape. That's what I've been the most impressed with."

Through 57 games this season, the Rays' starters have allowed more than five earned runs in a game only six times. For comparison's sake, consider that Fossum alone surrendered at least six earned runs in four of his first eight starts last season.

Perhaps the most telling sign of the maturity of the current starting staff is the way they have responded to the occasional poor start. Shields got hammered at Fenway Park on May 3, allowing 13 base-runners and seven runs in 32/3 innings. He responded the next time out with a complete-game, one-hit shutout of the division-leading Angels.

Andy Sonnanstine's best showing of the year, a three-hit shutout of the White Sox, also came on the heels of his worst - the Yankees touching him up for three homers and seven runs in 31/3 innings. Edwin Jackson and Matt Garza have had similar reversals immediately after getting knocked around.

"I'm impressed with the way they're developing start-by-start," closer Troy Percival said. "They check and see what they've done right, done wrong, and they've been making the adjustments. You don't see a lot of back-to-back poor starts by anyone in particular."

The Rays also haven't seen a rough outing by one starter followed by those behind him in line very often, the key to preventing the morale-sapping extended losing skids that have marred so much of the franchise's history. Tampa Bay's longest losing streak this season is four games, and it came early - April 6-9 against the Yankees and Mariners.

"I think that's one of the biggest differences this year is we have stoppers in all facets, one through five - anybody can stop the bleeding," Shields said. "That's one of our main goals this year as a starter is to be able to stop the bleeding as quickly as possible."

With Kazmir healthy after missing the first month and Garza settling into a groove, the Rays' starters have been more effective as the season has unfolded.

The pitching staff as a whole has established team records for ERA in a month each of the first two months of the season - 3.74 in April and 3.66 in May - and the rotation just turned in its best monthly showing. The starters' May ERA of 3.29 shattered the previous club mark of 3.78 established in September 2001.

Despite venturing into territory previously unseen by a Rays rotation, there is a sense that this group, still evolving, has hardly reached its ceiling.

"We're not satisfied," Kazmir said.

The lefty spoke of the staff's vastly improved confidence level, which is so crucial in thrusting a core of young starters to a higher level. Around the clubhouse, others echoed that sentiment.

"Our whole team knows that we have a guy going out every night knowing that we could possibly win that night, and that's a great feeling," Shields said. "When you don't have your whole team backing you up, saying you don't have a chance to win that night, it's not going to happen. I think now, one through five, we definitely have a good chance to win every night."

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