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Rangers finish sweep of Rays in Texas

The Associated Press

Rays shortstop Jason Bartlett drops the ball trying to force out Texas Rangers' Marlon Byrd at second base.

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By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 5, 2009

Updated: 07/06/2009 09:03 am

ARLINGTON, Texas - As the Rangers polished off a three-game sweep of the Rays on Sunday night, it was easy to forget that earlier in this relatively brief road trip Tampa Bay had been playing perhaps its best baseball of the year.

That season-high seven-game winning streak seemed awfully distant in the wake of a 5-2 loss to Texas, which remained in a tie for first place in its division as the Rays lost more ground in the American League East.

"It's interesting how this game is so volatile," said Carlos Peña. "It's just funny how we were in a nice little groove and we had piled up some wins in a row and at the same time now we've dropped a few in a row.

"You ask, is anything different? I don't think you could tell or you could actually come up with the answer. I would say no – it's just the way the game goes."

Well, one thing has definitely been different, even if none of the Rays can adequately explain why. The Rays' offense, still the most prolific in the majors, has managed only seven runs during the current four-game skid – four of them coming Saturday, when they served no purpose in a 12-4 defeat.

So even though the Rays' starting pitching hasn't been spectacular lately, it's difficult to blame the current skid on anyone but the hitters. On the heels of three consecutive losses to rookie pitchers — the third time in club history that has happened — the slightly more established Scott Feldman stopped them cold Sunday.

Nothing against those four, but it hasn't exactly been Halladay, Greinke, Sabathia and Beckett mowing down the Rays.

"They're fine," Maddon said of the pitchers his team has seen lately, "but nevertheless you would expect better results."

The only runs the Rays managed Sunday came in the third inning, and Tampa Bay didn't even manage a hit. Feldman hit B.J. Upton with a pitch to start things off, then walked Carl Crawford. Each moved up 90 feet on a double steal and both scored on a blooper-reel sacrifice fly by Evan Longoria.

His drive to right field was deep enough to score Upton, and Crawford was moving up to third base on the play when Jarrod Saltalamacchia stepped in front of the plate and cut off Nelson Cruz's throw from right. The catcher tried to catch Crawford advancing but he fired the ball into left field, allowing the speedster to score easily.

Those runs made it 2-2 after Texas had put up a single run against Rays starter Matt Garza in each of the first two innings.

It was a strange night for Garza, who deftly avoided surrendering the big hit but ultimately succumbed to death by sacrifice. Three of the Rangers' runs against him scored on sacrifice flies, including back-to-back fly balls to Upton by David Murphy and Marlon Byrd in the fourth inning.

Another Texas run scored on what should have been a groundout, as Cruz rolled one to Peña with the bases loaded in the third and everyone ended up safe when Jason Bartlett dropped Peña's throw to second for an error.

Despite his success at damage control, Garza was far from satisfied.

"That's five runs in five innings," he said. "That's not good enough. That doesn't give us a chance to win. It puts pressure on the offense, and that's not my job."

No, but more than anything, the Rays need their bats to heat back up as they head back to the comfortable environs of Tropicana Field for their final games before the All-Star break.

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