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Streaking Rays Get 2nd Straight Shutout

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By CARTER GADDIS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 11, 2008

Updated: 05/11/2008 12:13 am

ST. PETERSBURG - Scott Kazmir didn't look right. He didn't feel right, either. His fastball rarely broke 90 mph and his pitch count in the early going made it look like it would be a short night against the Angels.

His 2008 Tropicana Field debut, in front of a Carlos Pena figurine-night crowd of 25,512 fans, was not a thing of beauty.

Until you look at today's box score for Tampa Bay's 2-0 victory.

In earning the 36th victory of his career to surpass Victor Zambrano as the all-time winningest pitcher in franchise history, Kazmir wobbled and scrapped his way through six innings, allowing three hits and no runs.

"I'll take that," he said, "all day long."

So will the Rays, who moved to a franchise-best four games better than .500 for the second time this season and the fourth time ever. It was their franchise-record eighth consecutive victory at home (including three games at Disney) and it's the fastest the team has reached 20 victories.

And Kazmir (1-1), making his second start of the year after missing all of spring training and the first month of the regular season with a strained left elbow, extended one of the best streaks of starting pitching in Rays history.

Beginning with Matt Garza on Wednesday against the Blue Jays, Rays starters have allowed one run in 292/3 innings for a ridiculous ERA of 0.30. Edwin Jackson, James Shields and Kazmir have combined on 23 consecutive scoreless innings, second only in franchise history to a 30-inning streak by the starters in September 2000.

"It's what we planned to do since spring training," Kazmir said, "just feed off of each other."

Early on, Kazmir appeared to have fed only slightly off the momentum of Shields' one-hit shutout Friday. Kazmir's fastball in the first and second innings averaged 87-88 mph, and it took him 46 pitches to get through two.

"It just felt like if I would've let it go, just my front side would just fly open for some reason if I just put that little bit of extra," Kazmir said. "It was getting more and more comfortable. It just felt like it wasn't completely there yet."

Yet, he struck out the side in the second and finished with six strikeouts while walking three. A two-out walk in the sixth issued to No. 9 hitter Sean Rodriguez and an ensuing double by Gary Matthews Jr. created Kazmir's biggest challenge of the night, and he worked out of it by getting Erick Aybar to ground out to shortstop.

That ended his night at 108 pitches, 70 for strikes. In the sixth, his fastball consistently began to touch 92-93 mph.

"I thought as the game got a little bit deeper, he was thinking less about that and more about just letting it go," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "I was pleased with that. I thought he started mixing in his slider later on during the course of the game, and the change-up. But again, no runs in six innings, that's something good to build off for him."

Kazmir left with a 1-0 lead provided in the first by Akinori Iwamura's leadoff single, a pair of walks issued by Angels starter Joe Saunders (6-1) to Carl Crawford and Pena, and a groundout by Evan Longoria. Pena added a sacrifice fly in the eighth to create some breathing room for closer Troy Percival, who pitched a perfect ninth for his eighth save.

Setup reliever Dan Wheeler got into an eighth-inning jam by walking pinch-hitter Reggie Willits and Matthews, but Pena's diving stop on Aybar's sharp grounder preserved what was still a one-run lead. After walking Vladimir Guerrero intentionally, Wheeler got No. 4 batter Torii Hunter to pop out and pinch-hitter Garret Anderson to ground out.

That sent the fifth-largest crowd of the season into hysterics, a fever pitch they matched as Percival struck out Brandon Wood to end the game.

"That's exactly what I've been talking about since we came on board," Maddon said. "This place really can be a homecourt advantage for us, and that is all about the fans. That is the 10th man. That is about what you heard tonight."

Reporter Carter Gaddis can be reached at (813) 259-8291 or igaddis@tampatrib.com.

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