TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

For Rays, Sweep Deprivation

The Associated Press

Tampa Bay Ray's Ben Zobrist can't get to a ball hit by New York Yankees' Robinson Cano in the second inning of the second game.

ADVERTISEMENT

By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 14, 2008

NEW YORK - The Rays didn't lose any ground in the standings Saturday, but the potential gains that slipped away made for a disappointing finish to their longest day of the season.

Late shifts on the scoreboard at Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park took what might have been a four-game Rays lead and cut it to two, as Tampa Bay fell 6-5 to the Yankees after holding a three-run lead and Boston rallied to beat the Blue Jays 7-5.

Those results wiped out the Rays' gains from the first set of games played by the AL East rivals earlier in the day, which saw them cruise to a 7-1 win and Toronto roll 8-1.

"Any time you're up in a game and you blow a lead or things happen, you feel like you lost the opportunity," Ben Zobrist said. "We could have gained maybe another game if Boston had lost and we had won, and it would have been nice to take both of them today, but we have all the faith in the world in each other to pick each other up."

Zobrist might need a bit of picking up after he embodied the best and worst of the nightcap for the Rays.

He was the Tampa Bay hitter who finally got to Yankees starter Sidney Ponson, crushing a grand slam in the fourth to drive the right-hander from the game and give the Rays a 4-1 lead. And he was the one whose error in the seventh ultimately cost Tampa Bay its edge.

Leading 4-3 by then, J.P. Howell had coaxed what appeared to be an inning-ending double-play ball off the bat of Bobby Abreu, but Zobrist's delivery to second baseman Akinori Iwamura sailed way off target and down the right-field line. Gabe Gross had trouble picking up the ball, an error that allowed Derek Jeter (who went 6-for-7 Saturday) to score the tying run, and Xavier Nady would put the Yankees ahead 5-4 with a single up the middle off Grant Balfour later in the frame.

"It happens every once in a while," Zobrist said. "I've been playing good defense lately and just picked a bad time to have a physical mistake there."

He wasn't alone in culpability. Matt Garza wasn't terribly sharp in his abbreviated stint and allowed a pair of runs immediately after Zobrist gave the Rays a lead. Then again, a throwing error by Dioner Navarro helped move that process along. The Rays have exceeded Saturday night's three errors only once this season, when they committed four against the Marlins on June 25.

"That wasn't our typical game," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "Still had a chance to win it; we just made too many mistakes."

That was quite a contrast from the opener, which saw the Rays field a lineup featuring seven players who spent time in the minors this season (if you include Rocco Baldelli's rehab assignment) and crank out seven runs. Evan Longoria played a big part with a two-run single in his first action since Aug. 7 and Justin Ruggiano had a career day with three hits to end a hitless skid that dated to Aug. 19.

But it was James Shields' effort that carried the afternoon. Shields had never beaten the Yankees in seven previous starts, going 0-6 with a 6.86 ERA. He hadn't pitched badly in a couple of starts against New York earlier this season, giving up only two runs in each, but came out on the short end both times.

Saturday was a different story. The Yankees moved a runner past first base in only one of Shields' eight innings, the sixth, when Jeter singled with two outs and Abreu followed with a ground-rule double to dead center. But Shields got out of it when Longoria went to his right to spear a Nady grounder down the line and throw him out at first.

"You can talk about the hits all you want, but the play down the line versus Nady, to me, was maybe the turning point in that game," Maddon said. "Few guys make that play, and then to throw that accurately, that was a big moment in today's game."

And defense in general was the difference. The Rays got what they needed with the gloves in the opener, but were let down in a big way in the nightcap.

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

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT