Rays drop series finale vs. Twins

07/20/2006
MINNEAPOLIS -- The Devil Rays simply can't find enough hits right now.
Even when the team jumped out to an early lead against one of the American League's best pitchers, a defensive lapse evened the score and a big inning shut down Tampa Bay's chances of halting its worst losing streak of the season on Thursday afternoon as Minnesota swept the four-game set with a 6-4 win at the Metrodome.
The Rays fell to a season-high 18 games below .500 and lost a franchise-record 12th straight to the Twins.
"There's so much premium on our pitchers right now to not make mistakes because we're not scoring runs," manager Joe Maddon said. "I think that's adding a little pressure to them, so we just have to pick it up on the offensive side.
"When you don't hit, everything else seems to drag."
Despite allowing a four-run fifth inning, the Rays had a chance to get back in the game in the final two frames.
In the eighth inning, second baseman Jorge Cantu hit a two-out home run off reliever Juan Rincon, cutting the deficit to 6-4. Ty Wigginton then walked to bring the tying run to the plate. Maddon elected to use Greg Norton to pinch-hit for Dave Hollins, but he struck out in the eight-pitch at-bat to end the threat.
In the ninth, Travis Lee notched a leadoff single off Twins closer Joe Nathan to again bring the tying run to the plate, but Nathan struck out the last three hitters on 12 pitches.
All in all, four hitters came to the plate in the last two innings with a chance to tie the game with a homer or make things interesting with a base hit. Every one of them struck out.
"That's kind of been a problem for us all year," Maddon said of the untimely hitting. "We're working at it, but we just have to get better. It takes time. That's not been one of our strong points."
Rays starter James Shields (4-4) lasted 4 1/3 innings, allowing eight hits and five earned runs. In the fifth inning, six of the first seven Twins hitters reached base via a hit or walk -- the only out was a sacrifice bunt. Minnesota batted around in the inning, forcing Shields out of the game after throwing just 82 pitches.
"I was just making bad pitches," said Shields, who is 0-4 with an 8.89 ERA in his last five starts. "If I execute my pitches, that doesn't happen.
"My ball was up. If I keep the ball down, I might get some groundouts or even pop outs."
A couple of critical mistakes in the field for the Rays led to the tying run in the fourth inning and a security run in the sixth.
With the Rays leading, 1-0, in the fourth, catcher Josh Paul called for a pitchout with Minnesota's Nick Punto on first base. Punto ran on the play, realized he would be thrown out and stopped 10 feet short of second. But Punto made a sudden cut for the back end of the bag when shortstop Julio Lugo took a wide turn on the front side of the base and was called safe.
Punto scored when Michael Cuddyer doubled to right-center field.
In the sixth, a balk by reliever Chad Harville moved Minnesota's Jason Tyner into scoring position. He came around to score on a two-out double by Luis Castillo, extending Minnesota's lead, 6-3.
Tampa Bay took an early lead with Travis Lee's home run to lead off the third inning -- his second of the series. After Minnesota evened the contest, the Rays regained the lead with a two-out single by Rocco Baldelli that scored two in the fifth. It was Baldelli's fifth multi-RBI game of the season.
The Rays held a lead in three of four games of the series, but never led after the fifth inning.
"Today, we got in the game, we got ahead and I couldn't close the deal," Shields said.
Minnesota left-hander Johan Santana (11-5), on a bad day, was good enough to beat the Rays. Santana tossed just six innings, but allowed six hits and an unprecedented four walks -- he hadn't recorded that many walks in a game in his last 37 starts.
Santana and three Twins relievers combined for 14 strikeouts -- at least one in every inning except the third.
"We strike out way too much," Maddon said. "There's no denying it and there's no tap-dancing around it. That's a big part of your offense, where if you're not even making the defense play, it's a lot easier for the defense and the pitcher."

Source: http://tampabay.devilrays.mlb.com/