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Garza's Honesty Rings True: He Failed

Tribune photo by CHRIS URSO

Rays pitcher Matt Garza in game three against the Chicago White Sox in the ALDS in Chicago.

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By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 6, 2008

CHICAGO - Give Matt Garza high marks for honesty. On a day when the Rays needed his best, he didn't come close to providing. He knew it, too.

"I failed," he said simply as he stood quietly in front of his locker early Sunday evening after the Rays' first chance to clinch their playoff series with Chicago evaporated in a 5-3 loss. It was a generally mediocre effort by a pitcher most say has the best stuff on the staff.

He walked four batters, and three of them scored. And when he wasn't missing the strike zone completely, he was getting too much of it. Even a team struggling to score runs like the Sox did at Tropicana Field can get healthy on fastballs over the heart of the plate - no matter if they're coming in at 96 mph or better.

"It was a lack of execution tonight," he said.

That has been happening too frequently for comfort with Garza. He has won just once since his two-hit shutout against Texas on Aug. 15. He was 0-2 with a 4.73 ERA in September.

The inconsistency drives you mad, because you know how good Garza can be.

Say, like the way he was the first couple of innings in this game.

He needed just six pitches to dispatch Chicago in the first inning. The Sox had only a harmless single after two. But then he opened the third inning by walking Dewayne Wise, the No. 8 hitter, and that cost a run. Then it all imploded in the fourth - a pair of doubles, a single, another walk, and three runs.

"He started making mistakes," White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski said.

Those mistakes were expensive. The Rays never led again.

"It was nothing other than missed pitches, missed spots," Garza said. "That's all it was."

Garza is a high-wire act anyway. When his amped-up emotions are under control, he's nearly unhittable. But that same voltage that makes him dominant also can cause his mind to wander down dark alleys it should stay away from.

"I thought he was on his 'A' game tonight," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. I wish my algebra teacher had been as generous with his grades as Maddon was with this one.

The first dark cloud in the playoffs just appeared for the Rays, and it didn't have to be that way. It could have been over. Yes, Chicago is a better offensive team at home than it showed at the Trop. And yes, the Rays didn't do much against Sox starter John Danks and those who followed him.

You can't lay the whole loss on Garza.

"Overall, I thought he threw the ball well," Maddon said. "He had good stuff. He gave us a chance to win."

But when you know what he is capable of and then you see what he did, it's hard to cut him much slack. He said he failed.

That may be harsh, but unfortunately for the Rays it's also true.

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