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Rays Out Of Sync In Loss

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By MARC LANCASTER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 9, 2008

Updated: 06/09/2008 12:23 am

ARLINGTON, Texas - A feel-good weekend for the Rays deteriorated Sunday into a frustrating series finale that saw the starting pitcher and catcher square off in the dugout, a handful of balls misplayed and a player ejected for disputing a called third strike.

Oh, and a 6-3 loss to the Rangers.

"This wasn't pretty today," Carl Crawford said. "Bad day all the way around."

More so for Matt Garza than anyone else. The Rays' starter had a couple of heated exchanges with Dioner Navarro, one on the mound during the bottom of the fourth inning and another in the dugout after that frame that precipitated a brief shoving match.

That dust-up in the tunnel heading to the clubhouse sent coaches and teammates flying down the stairs to get in the middle and broke up quickly. But Manager Joe Maddon and pitching coach Jim Hickey obviously had seen enough from Garza, who was lifted with his pitch count at 77, having allowed three runs in four innings.

Though Hickey labeled the dispute between batterymates "more of a mutual thing," Maddon acknowledged afterward that Garza's actions were the reason he was removed from the game and said "Navi was not the irritant." The manager met behind closed doors with Garza for about 15 minutes after the game.

Garza has long been known as a high-intensity pitcher, sometimes to his detriment. His former manager in Minnesota, Ron Gardenhire, said shortly after the Rays acquired Garza that the right-hander was "an emotional kid" and one of the only issues the Twins had with him was "controlling him out on the mound."

That trait bubbled over Sunday shortly after Garza allowed his second home run of the game, a two-run drive to dead center field by No. 9 hitter German Duran, who had been called up from Triple-A before the game. Ramon Vazquez had reached base just before that on a tailing fly ball to short left that fell between Crawford and Jason Bartlett.

When Ian Kinsler singled to follow the home run, Garza and Navarro exchanged words on the mound, with Navarro turning and heading back to the plate as Hickey came out of the dugout to try to calm Garza down.

"He's an emotional guy out there on the mound," said Hickey, "and I was just trying to basically encourage him to channel his energy and his emotions more toward the task at hand versus just kind of wasting it out there."

Garza retired the next batter but offered an indicator that he hadn't regained his composure with David Murphy at the plate and two outs by firing a pitchout well out of Navarro's reach, hitting the screen for a wild pitch.

He retired Murphy on a groundout and returned to the dugout, where he encountered Navarro near the bat rack. More words were exchanged and it got physical from there, though witnesses said no punches were thrown.

Both players downplayed the incident afterward.

"It was just something that happened during the game and it's been taken care of," said Navarro. "It happens in the family. I think everybody's going to be fine from this point on. It was really nothing."

They agreed that the disagreement did not stem from pitch selection but wouldn't get into specifics beyond that.

"It was just, heat of passion, probably," said Garza. "We're both competitors and whatever happens is going to stay here and we're going to fix it."

Can it be fixed?

"We definitely can fix it," said Garza. "This is a great bunch of guys and everybody's on each others' side and we're going to fix it."

Eric Hinske was mystified that the words he said to home-plate umpire James Hoye after being called out on strikes in the sixth inning were enough to constitute an ejection (though he did admit to using profanity).

"I've said a lot worse to umpires in my career and didn't get thrown out," Hinske said.

Then there was the fly ball that fell to the earth in the third inning when B.J. Upton and Gabe Gross collided - both of them calling for the ball but neither hearing the other.

"Of course the ball in right field should have been caught," Maddon said before moving on to dismiss it and the tough-hop grounder Bartlett couldn't handle for an error just before that play.

Those miscues gave Tampa Bay its first multiple-error game since April 20, but the Rays were eager to toss the entire afternoon in the garbage and head to the West Coast.

"Hopefully we can just put this game behind us and go to Anaheim and get some wins," said Hinske.

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

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