TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Dio, Longoria Power Rays Past The Angels

AP Photo

Akinori Iwamura, top, leaps over Los Angeles Angels' Gary Matthews Jr., during the first half of a double play in the fourth inning.

ADVERTISEMENT

By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 10, 2008

Updated: 06/10/2008 02:06 am

ANAHEIM, Calif. Evan Longoria acted as if he was trying to squeeze as many memories as he could into his first big-league game in front of a hometown crowd.

Making his debut at Angel Stadium, which lies about 20 miles down the road from where Longoria grew up in Downey, Calif., the rookie didn't disappoint a sizeable contingent of family and friends on hand. Longoria homered twice and crossed home plate four times in all in a 13-4 Rays romp over the Angels that equaled Tampa Bay's most lopsided victory of the season.

"Shoot – what a homecoming for me," said Longoria. "I had all my family and friends in and it was just a great feeling to be able to do what I did today."

And Longoria was only part of the story for the Rays. Manager Joe Maddon picked his first win as a visiting manager in the ballpark he called home for a dozen years as an Angels coach; Dioner Navarro continued his recent tear by collecting four hits, driving in four runs and coming up a triple shy of the cycle; and Tampa Bay did something it never had in 1,680 prior games in franchise history.

Longoria played a part in that final item by leading off a string of back-to-back-to-back homers off Angels starter Joe Saunders in the second inning – the first time the Rays have ever accomplished that feat. The third baseman delivered his second mammoth homer in four days by driving the second pitch he saw from Saunders far out to left field. The Angels don't estimate home run distances, but stadium officials guessed the ball might have traveled 450 feet.

"You watch batting practice and it's rare that you see balls hit back there, even in batting practice," said Maddon. "Glenallen Hill used to hit them up there all the time in BP and I've seen that, but in the game? I think I've seen A-Rod go back there, that was it."

Willy Aybar and Navarro followed with longballs of their own, putting the onus on the next batter, Gabe Gross, to keep it going.

"It was funny because Longo hits his way back and then Willy Aybar hit one deep, too," said Navarro, who has six hits in his last eight at-bats. "At that moment, Gabe Gross was coming out of the dugout and said, 'Man, they're putting a lot of pressure on us now.' So when I hit mine I was walking by and said, 'Now the pressure's on you.'

Gross grounded out to first base to end the string, but the Rays had carved out their turf against Saunders, the first American League pitcher to reach nine victories this season. Unfortunately for them, the Angels were able to chip away at Edwin Jackson and retake the lead.

Jackson went seven innings for his longest appearance since May 13 and earned just his second victory over his last 11 starts. He looked good doing it, for the most part, hitting 97 mph on the stadium radar display in the middle innings.

"I thought Jackson had great stuff tonight – not just OK," said Maddon. "I just wanted him to really focus because his stuff was way too good to not get deep into that game. He battled through it and was able to do so."

Jackson's most difficult moments came in the fourth, with the Rays' 3-2 lead suddenly gone after Torii Hunter followed a leadoff single by Vladimir Guerrero with a two-run homer. Jackson followed that up by allowing consecutive singles to Casey Kotchman and Gary Matthews Jr. but settled down and got Robb Quinlan to ground into a double play and Jeff Mathis to pop out to end the inning.

The Rays took that momentum and ran with it, breaking open what appeared to be a run-of-the-mill inning when a two-out double by B.J. Upton scored Carl Crawford to tie the game at 4-4. After Longoria walked, Aybar continued his impressive run at the plate with an RBI single and Navarro doubled both of them home to drive Saunders from the game.

The lefty had pitched at least five innings in his previous 12 starts this season and not allowed more than five runs in any of them. Monday, the Rays knocked him out after 4 2/3 and he ended up absorbing eight runs when Gross' single on the first pitch he saw from reliever Jose Arredondo scored Navarro.

The Angels wouldn't score the rest of the way off Jackson, Al Reyes and Gary Glover, but the Rays continued to pile on in the late innings and match their season high for runs and hits. They cranked out 18 of them, with every player in the lineup collecting at least one and six Rays turning in multi-hit games.

"Hats off to the offense," said Jackson. "They pretty much won the game."

Tampa Bay's offensive output was a refreshing change for Jackson. He has now allowed four runs in each of his last three starts, but the Rays managed a total of two runs in support his previous two times out against the White Sox and Red Sox.

Those three homers in the second put Jackson on steadier ground immediately and it just kept building. Along the way, a crowd that once numbered 42,019 dwindled to the point that the cheers for Longoria were plenty audible when he led off the ninth with a more conventional homer to left off Darren Oliver.

"Yeah, you could hear them," said Longoria. "But there were a lot of fans here tonight, so they kind of outweighed the Tampa Bay fans."

In the end, though, they were the ones who went home happy – just like Longoria.

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

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT