TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Niemann, Rays outduel Halladay, Jays

The Associated Press

B.J. Upton and Evan Longoria celebrate Carl Crawford's two-run home run during the third inning.

ADVERTISEMENT

By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 30, 2009

Updated: 06/30/2009 12:01 am

TORONTO - As Jeff Niemann entered the start that would mark the halfway point of his season Monday, the Rays weren't sure what they would get from the towering right-hander.

That sense that the game could break one way or another in a hurry remains with Niemann, even when he isn't matched up with one of the sport's elite pitchers. And perhaps it was the experience of pitching against Roy Halladay that helped draw out the Niemann who can be awfully impressive himself when he's on.

Because on this night, aided by pitch-count restrictions on Halladay in his first start off the disabled list, the Rays got the better of Toronto's ace, handing him only his second defeat of the season as they prevailed 4-1.

"You've got to pitch well to beat Doc," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "You've just got to pitch well, and we did, and that's why we came out on top."

Niemann limited the Blue Jays to four hits in 7 1/3 innings, the third time this season he has pitched into the eighth. He struck out only one, but that was fine by the Rays. They prefer to see him accumulate outs quickly, as he did in retiring 14 of 15 batters, including 10 in a row at one point, from the second through seventh innings Monday.

"It's still a work in progress as far as being consistently good, but I feel like we're making strides," Niemann said. "Even in the bad games, we learn stuff, and in the good games you just try to keep doing what we did."

Niemann had struggled since turning in perhaps the performance of the year for the Rays, his complete-game, two-hit shutout of the Royals on June 3. In three starts between that game and Monday, Niemann had totaled only 12 2/3 innings, allowing 15 hits and nine earned runs as he failed to exceed five innings each time out.

It should be noted that the Rays won each of those games, just as they have 11 of his 15 starts this season, but the bulk of the credit each time went to the offense that has played a huge part in Niemann accumulating a team-leading seven wins.

The hitters unquestionably deserved some credit Monday night as well, even with Halladay limited to six innings on 88 pitches - the first time he has failed to work at least seven innings this year.

The Rays made a key breakthrough in the third inning, as B.J. Upton led off with a walk and stole second, moving to third on a Rod Barajas throwing error on the play. Two pitches after yanking a Halladay fastball just foul far down the right-field line, Crawford took a breaking ball into the second deck to make it 2-0.

"He's a tough pitcher, he's been doing it for years, and you kind of go out knowing it's going to be tough to get runs," Upton said. "If you can scratch a couple like we did, it's big."

The Rays added two more in the seventh off Jeremy Accardo, one of them coming on Pat Burrell's homer leading off the inning, and turned it over to the bullpen for the final five outs after the Blue Jays finally dented Niemann in the eighth. Dan Wheeler got four of them before Randy Choate came on to retire Lyle Overbay for his fourth save.

Monday's win didn't gain the Rays any ground on the first-place Red Sox, but with their offense and bullpen locked in and their rotation beginning to settle into place, the Rays are as confident at the moment as they have been all season.

"We're feeling pretty good right now; hopefully we can keep it up. We're still trying to climb back up in the standings, so we're just trying to get into a groove and stay there."

Reporter Marc Lancaster can be reached at (813) 259-7227.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT