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Rays Enjoy Milestone Effort

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By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 26, 2008

MIAMI - The Rays have had offensive outbursts here and there over the course of this season, but have yet to really break loose and go on a team-wide tear.

It figures to happen eventually, however, and Wednesday night's game - heck, the fifth inning alone - provided as firm a starting point as the Rays could ask for. It isn't sufficient to say everyone in the lineup contributed to Tampa Bay's 15-3 demolition of the Marlins; everyone chipped in just in the fifth.

The Rays' first nine batters in the inning reached base and scored, a franchise first, and the visitors added another run later in the frame to come up one shy of the club mark for runs in an inning that was established May 28, 2000, against the Mariners and matched last Aug. 28 in Baltimore.

It was a milestone evening all the way around, as the Rays tied their season high with four home runs-two to almost identical spots in right-center by Carl Crawford - and set season standards in runs and margin of victory.

"That was something special tonight," Evan Longoria said. "I know we can put together some rallies, but I've never seen anything like that."

Longoria collected a two-run homer and an RBI single in the fifth, and B.J. Upton reached base and scored twice in the frame, on a walk and a single.

The Marlins went through three pitchers in search of the elusive first out in the inning, as starter Ryan Tucker and his relief, Eulogio de la Cruz, both failed to retire a batter. Even when Logan Kensing finally induced a grounder from Crawford - who had homered to start the onslaught - a run crossed the plate. It came in the person of James Shields, who joined in the fun by reaching on a Hanley Ramirez error.

"That was a big inning for us. I don't know if we ever did that before, but it was fun to do," Crawford said. "Even when we scored a bunch of runs, guys were still taking every at-bat like it was their last, so it was just nice to see everybody get in on the action like that."

The challenge for the Rays now is to keep the momentum going. They face a quick turnaround, with the first pitch in the series finale set for just after noon today, and their lineup will have a different look to it. But the onus will be on those who will be in there - Jonny Gomes, Shawn Riggans and the rest - to build on Wednesday's show of force.

"It's just like any other facet of the game - you get hot at it and all of a sudden, boom, it takes off," Manager Joe Maddon said. "Maybe this is something that can get us unstuck and get us going in the right direction offensively."

The Rays believe they have it in them, even if their success this season has been built mostly on pitching and defense.

"We don't click too often - we find ways to win games," Longoria said. "But that's really what we're capable of when everybody starts doing what they can do."

Not that it was a flawless performance - the Rays doubled their season high with four errors. Ben Zobrist flubbed a grounder in each of the first two innings in his first game filling in for the absent Jason Bartlett, and Upton dropped a fly ball in the fourth as he and Gabe Gross again had trouble communicating.

Akinori Iwamura capped it in the ninth, throwing one away on a double-play try for his first error of the season on his 347th total chance.

But Shields' performance in securing his first win since May 9 ensured that those miscues didn't cost the Rays. He shrugged off the unearned base runners he had to deal with in the first, second and fourth innings and kept the Marlins off the scoreboard. He allowed just one run, on a two-out solo homer by Mike Jacobs in the sixth.

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

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