White Sox rally to top Rays, 4-3

After all those come-from-behind victories, the Rays apparently were due for a come-from-ahead loss.

They absorbed one Wednesday night, blowing a three-run lead in the final frames and wasting a quality James Shields start for the umpteenth time this season as they fell 4-3 to the White Sox.

The untimely setback on the heels of triumphant rallies in four of their previous five contests dropped the Rays another game behind the surging Yankees, and once again it came right down to the wire against Chicago.

"Three games in a row like that and they've gotten two of them," said Rays manager Joe Maddon. "We definitely commanded that game and we made a couple mistakes and they got us, that's what it came down to."

Shields had an unwitting hand in the dominoes that fell with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, turning what at that point was a 3-1 Rays edge into a slim deficit Tampa Bay wouldn't be able to overcome. He handed matters over to the bullpen after walking ninth-place hitter Gordon Beckham with the bases empty, and that's when things got out of hand for the Rays.

Randy Choate did as expected in getting Scott Podsednik to put the ball on the ground, but the leadoff man's chopper toward the second base bag forced Jason Bartlett to rush his throw to first, and he fired the ball well wide of Carlos Peña and watched in dismay as it sailed into the Rays' dugout.

"I thought it was hit harder," Bartlett said. "I was going to stay on the bag and tag it, and at the last second I saw it wasn't coming to me, so I rushed it. I had to with Podsednik running."

With runners on second and third, Maddon summoned Chad Bradford, and the right-hander made it as far as the mound but that was about it. After a couple of warm-up tosses, he stepped back, looking uncomfortable, and catcher Dioner Navarro signaled for the dugout. Bradford departed (lower back stiffness was the eventual diagnosis) and Dan Wheeler - who had not been warming up - came on to face Alexei Ramirez.

The shortstop worked the count full, then drilled a pitch to center. B.J. Upton misjudged it, immediately breaking in before desperately reversing his field. He couldn't get back in time and the ball rolled to the wall for a two-run triple that tied the game at 3.

"He kind of took an inside-out swing, and off the bat I didn't really think he hit it that well," Upton said. "It kind of came out over Dan's shoulder and over the umpire, so I really didn't get a good look at it and took a step in. I still thought I had time to recover and I kind of spun out. The grass was a little damp, and it just beat me."

Next up was Jermaine Dye, who deposited a single in front of Upton to give the White Sox a lead before Joe Nelson finally got the Rays out of the inning.

Not that the Rays assumed the lead they had built on a solo homer by Pat Burrell in the fourth and a long two-run bomb by Gabe Gross in the sixth was bulletproof, of course. They're well aware of what the White Sox offense can do when it gets cranked up, although the long ball usually plays a part.

That wasn't the case Wednesday, aside from the reborn Podsednik's leadoff homer vs. Shields in the sixth that provided Chicago's first run. But the opportunistic rally stemming from that Beckham walk was more than enough to unravel a fine bounce-back outing for Shields after he had been touched up for a season-high seven runs by the Royals in his first second-half start.

"I didn't do my job late in the game," Shields said. "That's not me, and that's something I've got to get better at - finishing innings. Joe gave me a great opportunity of letting me go out there throwing a lot of pitches today, and I felt I did my job all the way up until the last hitter. That's just the way the game goes sometimes."

Looking forward to his start the previous afternoon, Shields said it was easier to brush off what happened in Kansas City because he has otherwise been pretty consistent all season. Indeed, Friday's outing marked only the second time since the season opener that Shields didn't complete at least six innings.

Aside from issuing a rare walk to the second batter he faced Wednesday, Shields looked completely self-assured from the beginning. He threw strikes and piled up outs - many of them on grounders as he let his defense work for him - and held the White Sox scoreless through five.

But as the Rays know as well as anyone lately, the game lasts a lot longer than five, and the timing didn't go their way in this one.

"We've been playing some tough ballgames," Upton said. "You've got to win the close ones, and unfortunately we couldn't win today."