Rays Fall, Lose Starter

ST. PETERSBURG - Matt Garza had felt the pain on the outside of his right arm before, near the end of last season with the Twins and earlier this spring, but he had always been able to fight through it and take the mound again four days later.

Tuesday night, it finally overwhelmed him. Unable to command his pitches as the third inning unraveled around him, Garza threw in the towel after facing his eighth hitter in the frame. Leaving the Rays' home opener after recording just eight outs was bad enough, but worse yet for the pitcher and the Rays is the thought that no one knows when he will take the mound again.

Following their 6-5 loss to the Mariners, the Rays put Garza on the 15-day disabled list with radial nerve irritation, leaving James Shields as the last man standing among the Rays' celebrated front-of-the-rotation trio.

"I've usually been able to get through it, just kind of pitch through it and wear the pain and get it right after the game and get my work in," Garza said. "This time, it was just real bad - I knew something was up."

Garza left the mound after a stretch in which he walked three of four batters - the first of them intentionally. Following ball four to Jose Vidro, the eighth man to bat in the inning, Garza signaled toward the dugout and Rays head athletic trainer Ron Porterfield jogged to the mound, with Manager Joe Maddon close behind. Maddon almost immediately signaled to the bullpen for Scott Dohmann, and a grim-faced Garza walked to the dugout alongside Porterfield.

Garza said he felt pain along the outside of his arm and numbness in his hand, an indication of a problem with the radial nerve. The nerve runs under the triceps, then wraps around to the top of the forearm as it runs down to the hand.

The Rays hope to have a better idea today of how long Garza will be sidelined. They recalled right-hander Jae Kuk Ryu from Durham to shore up their bullpen after burning through five relievers Tuesday, but he will not take Garza's next scheduled start Sunday against the Orioles.

Maddon didn't say it, but that assignment likely will go to Jeff Niemann, who is on the 40-man roster and on the same schedule as Garza; he allowed four runs in six innings Tuesday for Durham after taking a no-hitter into the fifth.

With Scott Kazmir still sidelined and no clear timetable established for his return, the Rays can hardly afford to have Garza out for any length of time. Just knowing he'll miss at least the next two weeks had Garza frustrated Tuesday night.

"I've never missed a start in my life," he said. "I've always been able to game up and go at it, no matter how tired I was or how bad I felt."

Losing another starter pushed the game itself, which was designed as a celebration as the Rays played at Tropicana Field for the first time this season, to the back burner.

The game was played before an announced sellout crowd of 36,048, though there were numerous empty seats throughout the stadium. Those who remained for the duration saw the Rays attempt a comeback after falling behind for good in the sixth inning, but it didn't come to fruition.

Tampa Bay couldn't put more than one runner on base in an inning after pushing across two runs in the fifth without the benefit of a hit to take a 5-4 lead. The Rays scored the go-ahead run in that frame on one of several strange plays throughout the evening, a double steal that saw B.J. Upton swipe home for the second time since last September.

Upton was a flashpoint again in the seventh, doubling down the line off Roy Corcoran and trying to stretch it to third, where he would have represented the tying run with one out. His slide into third was in time but Adrian Beltre had his knee down, blocking the bag, and umpire Hunter Wendelstedt called Upton out.

Upton said he hit "all bag" as Beltre's leg came up when he tried to make the tag, but his protests and those of Maddon - who was ejected from the game, were to no avail.