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Rays Let Marlins Off The Hook In Finale

Associated Press photo

Edwin Jackson, foreground, reacts after being removed following the fifth inning of a 9-3 loss to the Florida Marlins.

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By MARC LANCASTER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 16, 2008

Updated: 06/16/2008 12:45 am

ST. PETERSBURG - It wasn't readily apparent in the first two games of the Citrus Series that the most prolific home run-hitting team in baseball was visiting Tropicana Field. Florida went consecutive games without a long ball for the first time this season Friday and Saturday and, probably not coincidentally, the Rays notched a couple of wins.

Sunday afternoon, the Marlins reminded the Rays that they have a lineup capable of hitting the ball a long way. Two big swings accounted for six Florida runs and the Rays couldn't overcome them, falling 9-3 in a rare home defeat.

"The first two games we won by our recipe and they won through their recipe today," Rays manager Joe Maddon said.

A Father's Day crowd of 28,886 witnessed a display hardly befitting a team that entered the afternoon with the fourth-best record in the majors. Beyond the pair of three-run homers surrendered by Edwin Jackson, the Rays also allowed a couple of runs late on a ball that dropped untouched between outfielders B.J. Upton and Gabe Gross for a triple.

All told, it was a flashback to darker days at the Trop, and the home clubhouse was somber even though the Rays already had secured the series win by taking the first two games against their cross-state counterparts. The fact that most didn't seem in the mood to hang their hats on that accomplishment and brush off Sunday's loss was about the only bright spot Maddon could find in the series finale.

"We don't feel that way anymore," Maddon said. "It's disappointing to not have won the third game here today. To have the momentum, played so well the first two nights, to come in and just pretty much not play well today, that's disappointing."

As is just about always the case, the tenor of the game was determined by the starting pitchers. Florida's Ricky Nolasco worked mostly off his curveball as he struck out 12 Rays. He missed a complete game by one out despite throwing 132 pitches, the most by anyone in the majors this season.

When talking to reporters after the game, though, Nolasco credited his offense for getting the jump on the Rays in the second inning.

"It was big to just get on top of these guys," Nolasco said.

Jackson got an assist in that effort, walking Dan Uggla and Luis Gonzalez in the second inning before hanging a 1-2 slider to Wes Helms - "Just a mistake pitch," Jackson said - that ended up in the left-field stands for a 3-0 Marlins lead.

They doubled their advantage in the fifth, with Jeremy Hermida and Jorge Cantu racking up two-out singles to set up another three-run blast, this one by Mike Jacobs on an errant Jackson change-up.

The Rays got a run back in each of the next two innings on a Jason Bartlett RBI single and a solo homer from Eric Hinske, but any hopes of another late-inning miracle dropped unceremoniously to the turf in the eighth.

With two out and two on, Cody Ross lofted what should have been an inning-ending fly ball to right-center. Both Upton and Gross called for it, and for the second time in a week in a similar situation, neither made the catch. They didn't collide this time as they had in Texas a week earlier, and that ended up making it worse. The ball rolled to the wall and two runs scored to officially put the game out of reach for the home team.

The Rays' hopes of a fifth series sweep this season fell by the wayside, the third time in the past month Tampa Bay has been unable to close out a series after taking the first two games.

"We've got to go for the kill every once in a while," Cliff Floyd said. "It's not going to happen all the time, but every once in a while you have to beat teams when they're down. We let them off the hook even though Nolasco was pretty good today."

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

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