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Touchstone Win Turns To Unsettling Defeat

The Associated Press

James Shields walks off the field after the second inning of a baseball game against the Blue Jays.

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By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 7, 2008

TORONTO - The argument could be made that every game the Rays play this month and beyond qualifies as playoff baseball, because missing out on October after everything they have done to get this far would be as crushing as any postseason defeat.

Tampa Bay remains on solid ground in that regard even after a stunning 7-4 loss to the Blue Jays on Saturday on a Gregg Zaun grand slam in the 13th inning, but this was the kind of game that has a tendency to linger. Even if the Rays insist they won't let that happen.

After rallying to tie the game with three runs off Toronto closer B.J. Ryan in the ninth inning, then scratching out the go-ahead tally in the top of the 13th, the Rays figured they had what might have been a touchstone victory for their September stretch drive. Instead, they were left to put on a brave face after Zaun yanked a Troy Percival pitch over Rocco Baldelli as the right fielder dangled from the outfield fence, a couple feet short of a miracle.

"We're up by a run, you feel like you're going to win the game, and then five seconds later, after it goes over the fence after he hits the ball, it's just a huge swing in emotions," Baldelli said. "I'm sure we're going to play a lot more games like that on the way toward the end of September, so we have to get used to them and try to do what we've been doing the entire year, because what we've been doing the entire year has been fine."

That attitude summarized the mood in a somber but hardly devastated visitors' clubhouse. The Rays have dropped four of five games and lost back-to-back series for only the second time this season. The first was the trip to New York and Cleveland heading into the All-Star break that capped a seven-game skid, but the Rays don't see any reason to bring that up.

"I don't think there's any comparison," Jason Bartlett said. "We were playing terrible then. We're playing good baseball now. It's just everybody's so used to us getting the clutch hit all the time and holding the other team down. We're human and it's going to happen. We're just not getting the breaks right now."

Up until Percival's final pitch Saturday, the Rays actually hadn't fared too badly in that department.

After going eight innings without denting the scoreboard, the Rays finally got to Ryan in the ninth as Baldelli hit a two-run homer to narrow the gap and Dioner Navarro's hard-hit grounder under second baseman Joe Inglett scored pinch-runner Fernando Perez to tie the game at 3.

Shortly after that, the Rays headed off Zaun's first bid for a game-winner when Bartlett dived into the hole on the left side for a spectacular stab at a grounder and caught Scott Rolen between third and home in an inning-ending rundown.

The score held steady until the 13th, when Navarro once again did the honors by driving in Perez with a two-strike single off Brian Tallet, the ninth Toronto pitcher of the day, for the Rays' first lead.

It was Percival time, and the Rays had been 33-0 when the veteran came on in a save situation. But it wasn't to be this time, as the type of nickel-and-dime base runners Percival has stranded so often in white-knuckle final innings this year came home on one big swing.

Even before Zaun, who had entered the game in an 0-for-21 skid, took his big hack, the signs were ominous. Vernon Wells' broken-bat infield single. A base hit to left by Brad Wilkerson on an 0-2 pitch. Rolen drawing a four-pitch walk as Percival's release point deserted him. And then it was over, with the Rays left to blow off some steam and refocus before today's series finale.

"It's happened to me quite a few times in my career," Percival said. "I'll be back here today ready to go. I'm sure the guys will be ready to go. It's unfortunate, but it's the way the game goes. ... Some days it doesn't happen, and today it didn't happen for me."

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