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Dio Rocks; Rays Roll

AP Photo

Carl Crawford, left, Carlos Pena, center, and Cliff Floyd celebrate as Crawford and Pena score after teammate Dioner Navarro (not shown) hit a three run double hit off Oakland Athletics pitcher Joey Devine during the eighth inning.

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By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 21, 2008

OAKLAND, Calif. The Rays have lost more than their share of games over the years because of moments of ineptitude that left mouths agape throughout the ballpark.

Tuesday night, they picked up an improbable 3-2 win thanks to just such a play by the opposition.

Oakland left fielder Emil Brown lost a sinking liner off the bat of Dioner Navarro in the lights with the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth inning, allowing all three runners to score in a stunning reversal of fortune after the Rays had spent the rest of the evening spinning their wheels offensively.

"It's just part of the game," Rays manager Joe Maddon said of the ball that eluded Brown. "It happens sometimes and tonight it was our turn. When you play 162, strange things do happen and we caught a strange one tonight in our favor."

Tampa Bay was in the midst of wasting a stellar pitching performance by Scott Kazmir in the face of equally impressive work by Greg Smith when the Oakland starter gave the Rays an opening to start the eighth. Smith walked Jason Bartlett on four pitches, then saw Carl Crawford cue a single into center. That was the lefty's last pitch of the evening, as Oakland manager Bob Geren summoned reliever Joey Devine from the bullpen.

The first key play of the inning came on the second pitch Devine threw, as Bartlett stole third easily and catcher Kurt Suzuki's throw bounced away for an error, allowing Crawford to move up to second. Devine struck out B.J. Upton, but the A's decided to intentionally walk Carlos Pena and load the bases for Evan Longoria. Monday night's hero struck out on a wicked breaking ball in the dirt and Devine was on the verge of escaping.

He thought he had the out he needed when Navarro lined one toward Brown, who had moved over from right field to start the inning. But Brown couldn't pick up the ball as he slid to the turf and it squirted by him, rolling slowly toward the wall. Bartlett, Crawford and Pena raced home and the Rays suddenly had the lead.

The play was originally called an error but the official scorer changed it to a double following the game after Brown told him he lost the ball.

"I don't like to make excuses, I tried my best," Brown told reporters in the A's clubhouse. "I would've taken the ball off my face if I could have found a way to see it. I just couldn't."

Finally in position to benefit from rather than suffer for a quirky play, the Rays welcomed the gift with open arms.

"I guess what goes around comes around," Navarro said with a smile.

Dan Wheeler handled the eighth and Troy Percival navigated a tough ninth for his 13th save – but not before allowing a long home run to Frank Thomas, the slugger's third of the series.

Percival stayed in the game despite feeling some soreness in his left hamstring in the midst of a one-out walk of Ryan Sweeney that put the tying run on base. He insisted to Maddon, who came out to check on him along with assistant trainer Paul Harker, that he was fine, and he struck out pinch-hitter Daric Barton and tagged Rob Bowen out on a groundout to wrap it up.

Kazmir hardly broke a sweat through the first four innings. He retired 12 of the first 13 men he faced, striking out six of them, with a leadoff double by Suzuki in the third his only blemish. That drive went for naught when Kazmir fanned the next three batters to end the inning.

"That's as good as we've seen Kaz, obviously, this year, and that's as good as he was last year on his best day," said Maddon. "He had great stuff, great command of his stuff – he was just really good tonight."

Trouble finally reared up in the fifth when Kazmir issued his first walk of the evening. Jack Cust drew it with one out, and he remained at first after Suzuki flied to center for the second out of the frame. But Gregorio Petit kept the inning alive by dropping a bloop single down the right-field line that eluded both Eric Hinske and Ben Zobrist, and Rajai Davis followed it up with a lined single to right that scored Cust.

"Those types of things are going to happen," Kazmir said of Petit's drop-shot. "I'd rather him hit a 500-foot shot than something like that, but that's baseball."

Kazmir had thrown 16 consecutive scoreless innings over three starts until then, dating back to his first outing of the season May 4 at Boston. After that run came in, he got right back to it by shutting out the A's in the sixth and seventh before handing it over to the bullpen after 97 pitches.

In the meantime, the Rays were unable parlay their early opportunities against Smith into a run of their own. They put at least one man on base in each of the first six innings but couldn't push anything across, seeing innings end on a double play (the second) and a pickoff (the fifth) as they stranded six runners along the way.

At the end, though, baseball karma smiled upon the Rays.

"We caught a break," said Maddon, "pure and simple."

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

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