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Rays Suffer Letdown Against Astros

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By MARC LANCASTER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 21, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - The thrill was gone from Tropicana Field on Friday night.

Some sort of letdown surely was expected with the Cubs, their mystique and their fans in the rear-view mirror and the slumping Houston Astros moving into the visitors' dugout. An opponent that came to town having lost eight in a row and 17 of its last 20 games didn't do much to get the juices flowing for the Rays or their supporters, making the effort Roy Oswalt put forth more than enough to secure a welcome 4-3 victory for the Astros.

Though Matt Garza got strong reviews from those in the home clubhouse for his six innings of work and Dioner Navarro's solo homer in the bottom of the ninth perked up the proceedings a bit, energy was lacking at the Trop.

A mere 14,741 fans bought tickets - a total that was less than half the attendance for any game in the Cubs series and nearly 5,000 fewer than any of the previous six games in the homestand. It's safe to assume Kool and the Gang will provide a significant boost tonight, but it would serve the Rays well to follow their lead and crank out a few more hits.

Few were forthcoming against Oswalt, a pitcher whose resume is among the most impressive in the majors but few of the Rays had witnessed firsthand before Friday night. His curveball in fine form, the slight right-hander surrendered a run in the first and didn't allow more than one Rays hitter to reach base in any of the next six innings before Tampa Bay scored again in the eighth.

"He pitched really well," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "He could have beaten a lot of teams tonight. He had very good command of his off-speed stuff, located his fastball well - he was good, and that was the primary reason we did not win tonight."

Astros manager Cecil Cooper agreed, saying his ace "had it all" Friday.

"He was basically in command after that first inning," Cooper told reporters. "I thought he had it pretty much locked up."

If only the Rays could have done a little more in the first. They counter-punched well after Garza gave up a pair of runs to open the game, with all of the damage coming after two were out. Carl Crawford, B.J. Upton and Eric Hinske put together consecutive hits in the bottom half to halve Houston's lead, but Oswalt stopped the Rays there. Tampa Bay stranded two runners when Cliff Floyd took a called third strike and would put just two more on base in the second through seventh innings.

The score stayed where it was until the fifth, when Michael Bourn raced around to capitalize on a leadoff single as Kazuo Matsui doubled. An error by Evan Longoria, the first of two in the game for the Rays, allowed Matsui to move to third and Lance Berkman brought him home on a sacrifice fly to cap a 12-pitch at-bat.

"I was ready to throw my hat at him and say 'Hit this,'" Garza said of that duel.

The right-hander, who suffered his first loss in seven starts at the Trop this season, had good stuff and struck out eight - matching his total from his previous three starts combined. He couldn't match Oswalt, but he had no complaints about his teammates' offensive difficulties.

"These guys do one hell of a job for me day in and day out," Garza said. "They gave me enough, they gave me three runs tonight, and that's definitely enough to win."

Gary Glover kept the Rays in the game after Garza's departure, holding off the Astros for 22/3 innings while awaiting some signs of life from his team's hitters.

Tampa Bay got one run back in the eighth and ninth, but it wasn't to be. Jose Valverde shook off Navarro's homer to close it out and record the first save by an opponent at the Trop since Mariano Rivera did it on April 15.

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

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