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Rays' Magic Evaporates

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By MARC LANCASTER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 4, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - A bloop double dropping in down the right-field line to bring home a Yankees run.

A bases-loaded, nobody-out line drive by Willy Aybar turning into a devastating double play.

A drive to deep center, just where Carlos Pena likes to hit them, coming up just shy of leaving the park.

Once again Wednesday night, the Tropicana Field magic that has been the Rays' lifeblood in running up the majors' best home record eluded them. Every turning-point moment - including the first test of Major League Baseball's replay system - went New York's way, with the end result an 8-4 setback for the Rays that put them in a rather unfamiliar situation.

The loss ensured the Rays their first series defeat since the All-Star break and their first at home against AL opposition since the White Sox took two of three at Tropicana Field on April 18-20. The Rays also dropped games at the Trop on consecutive days for the first time since April 14-15.

"They're playing well right now against us, and we were just a step short on different occasions," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "They outplayed us, and they deserved to win."

The Rays' frustrations came in dribs and drabs but never really let up, and Pena's reaction after Johnny Damon crashed into the wall to grab his drive and end the seventh inning summed it up. The effervescent slugger whipped his batting helmet off his head and slammed it into the dirt between first and second base, lamenting a night that saw just about everything go wrong for the Rays.

A 1-0 lead courtesy of a Cliff Floyd double in the first inning quickly evaporated in the second, as Robinson Cano doubled in a run on a ball that dipped just out of a diving Eric Hinske's reach in left field. Ivan Rodriguez followed with the aforementioned bloop over Pena's head, and suddenly Rays starter Edwin Jackson wasn't feeling so good, even though he didn't seem to be pitching that badly.

The Yankees got a bit more emphatic the following inning, sending three consecutive doubles to left-center that appeared to have Hinske wondering who he had angered. Those gappers produced two more runs, and a broken-bat single up the middle by Hideki Matsui made it 5-1 Yankees. It continued in the fourth with a couple of infield singles, and Jackson was lifted in favor of Chad Bradford after recording one out in the inning.

Jackson turned in his shortest outing in just more than a year, dating to another 31/3-inning stint against New York on Sept. 1 at Yankee Stadium. The right-hander had allowed a total of five runs in his previous four starts combined, working at least six innings each time out, so this was not the kind of outing anyone was expecting.

"That's kind of a funny outing right there because there were a lot of plays - choppers here, balls right out of our reach there ... it's not like they just pinned his ears back," Maddon said. "I thought overall he threw the ball fine, but I had to get to the bullpen at that point."

The Rays did gain a bit of traction in the middle innings, with a two-run Gabe Gross homer in the fourth closing the gap to 6-3 and the first three batters of the fifth inning reaching base to drive Yankees starter Carl Pavano from the game.

Aybar had the game in his hands against Edwar Ramirez, but his liner went straight to Cano. One out in that situation wouldn't have been a back-breaker, but Pena broke forward off second base and Cano jogged to the bag for an easy double play, deflating the Rays' hopes. Hinske's tough night continued when he ended the inning by popping to Derek Jeter in shallow left field and the Rays emerged empty-handed.

The score held steady at 6-3 until the ninth, when Bobby Abreu drew a two-out walk from Troy Percival to cap a 12-pitch at-bat. Percival thought he had struck out Alex Rodriguez to end the inning, but plate umpire Greg Gibson disagreed, calling a ball.

Rodriguez slammed the next pitch high down the left-field line for a homer that was called into question by the Rays. The umpires upheld their original ruling and Rodriguez had his 549th career homer, good for 12th place all-time, but Percival was upset.

"It should have never gotten to that point; the pitch before that was a strike," he said. "Everybody in the ballpark knew it, A-Rod knew it, everybody knew it."

But once again, it didn't go the Rays' way.

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

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