Garza, Rays even series with Phillies

Matt Garza said heading into his start against the Phillies that he was looking for some payback for last fall's World Series disappointment.

Pat Burrell didn't say it, but it's safe to assume on the basis of good old human nature that he was hoping to put on some sort of show against the team he represented for so long.

Wednesday night, both had reason to stand tall for their roles in a 7-1 Rays victory that was far more suspenseful than the final score indicates for the better part of eight innings.

Garza turned in a sterling performance, plowing through eight innings to pick up his first win since May 16, and Burrell finally got that big hit he craved, hammering a two-run shot off Joe Blanton in the second inning for only his second homer of the season.

Between the work those two did and the relief provided by a five-run eighth inning, the game was just about the opposite of the series-opening disaster for the Rays.

"That's all that was, was an embarrassing game from top to bottom," Burrell said. "Obviously the momentum heading into tonight was the other way, so for Garza to come out and basically just roll through their lineup like that is not only difficult but pretty commendable."

Garza had vowed to reassess every aspect of his game after his run of winless starts grew to six last week in Colorado, and he found an obvious reason for his problem. A fastball pitcher at the core, he had drifted away from the hard stuff in favor of more deception and found himself issuing both walks and hits at an uncharacteristic rate.

Leaning on his mid-90s fastball Wednesday, he didn't allow a hit until Greg Dobbs singled on the first pitch of the fifth inning and surrendered only one run, on a Jayson Werth homer wrapped around the right-field foul pole in the seventh.

"Even if it didn't go as well as it did, it still was a huge personality win, like pitching coach Jim Hickey puts it, because I got back to who I was," Garza said. "That's throwing my heater and saying, 'Hey, beat me with this.'"

The Phillies couldn't, threatening Garza only in the fourth when he walked the first three batters - the only free passes he allowed all night. But the defensive play of the night bailed him out, as Werth followed with a hard grounder to Evan Longoria to initiate a third-to-home-to-first double play.

By that point, the right-hander already had been nursing a two-run lead provided by Burrell earlier in the game. The designated hitter's second home run as a Ray, the other coming in the April 13 home opener, was a huge relief for any number of reasons.

Aside from representing the only damage Rays hitters did to Blanton - who struck out 10, including the side in order in both the fourth and seventh innings - it finally allowed Burrell to feel like he was lending a hand with his new team.

"It's fun because I know the team and everything like that," Burrell said. "But more importantly for me, it's just being back on the field and being able to contribute and help us win. I think that's number one."

Burrell also played a supporting role in the Rays' eighth-inning uprising. With the bases loaded and two outs, he sent a soft grounder to Jimmy Rollins. The inning should have ended there with the score 2-1, but Ben Zobrist had broken hard off first and was able to beat the throw to second.

Jason Bartlett followed by dumping a two-run single into right to extend his hitting streak to a club-record-tying 18 games and Gabe Gross' double brought home two more.

"I said a little bit of payback," Garza said, "But it's a huge win for us."