Devil Rays End 15-Game Frustration With a Winn

When the ball left his bat, Randy Winn couldn’t be sure that baseball’s longest losing streak in 14 years was over.

“I was praying, hoping it would go out,” Winn said Saturday night after his two-out, three-run homer in the ninth inning defeated Baltimore, 6-4, at St. Petersburg, Fla., and ended the Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ 15-game skid in startling fashion.

“I honestly haven’t hit enough home runs to know whether they’re going out or not. I’ve never hit a game-winning home run. It’s different.”

The Devil Rays were one out from becoming the third team to lose 16 in a row in the last 25 years. Their skid was the longest in the majors since 1988, when the Orioles opened the season with an AL-record 21-game losing streak.

“It was nice to get some relief. But for me, it’s on to tomorrow,” Tampa Bay Manager Hal McRae said.

“We’re going to try to put something together and show people what we’re made of. Everybody knew what we were about when we were losing because we were all over TV and all over the newspapers. This is our moment to show people what we’re really made of.”

Tampa Bay had not scored a run in the ninth inning this season before rallying to score four times with two out against closer Jorge Julio (2-1).

The Devil Rays trailed, 4-2, before Jason Tyner and Chris Gomez started the rally with singles. With two out, Brent Abernathy singled to drive in his second run of the game.

Winn followed with his third homer this season, hitting a 2-and-2 pitch over the center-field fence. The crowd of 10,811 at Tropicana Field kept cheering, and Winn took a curtain call.

Seattle 3, Boston 1--John Halama pitched 61/3 shutout innings and the Mariners beat the Red Sox for the second consecutive time.

Boston arrived at Seattle riding a nine-game winning streak, but the Red Sox have been outscored, 10-3, by the Mariners.

Ichiro Suzuki had three hits to raise his batting average to .360, and the Mariners took advantage of 11 walks. Darren Oliver (4-2) and knuckleballer Tim Wakefield each walked five batters.

Halama (2-0), making his third start this season, limited the Red Sox to five hits and a walk, with four strikeouts. He was replaced by Shigetoshi Hasegawa after Jose Offerman doubled in the seventh.

The Red Sox scored against Hasegawa on a double by Rey Sanchez and a single by Johnny Damon in the eighth before Arthur Rhodes replaced Hasegawa.

New York 4, Minnesota 2--Robin Ventura hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning, leading the Yankees at Minneapolis.

Bernie Williams had a single, double and triple to help the Yankees win their fifth in a row.

The crowd of 43,465 was the Twins’ largest for a non-opening day since 44,665 showed up for a game July 22 against Seattle.

With closer Eddie Guardado (0-1) on the mound in the ninth, Williams doubled with one out before Ventura’s towering shot to right, his eighth this season.

Mariano Rivera earned his 12th save in 14 tries.

Oakland 7, Toronto 4--Eric Chavez hit a grand slam, Barry Zito won his 11th consecutive decision at home, and the Athletics ended a four-game losing streak.

Raul Mondesi hit an inside-the-park home run for the Blue Jays, who lost their 12th in 16 games.

Zito (3-2) struck out 10 in six innings. He gave up two runs and five hits. The left-hander hasn’t lost a regular-season game at the Oakland Coliseum since June 2 against Baltimore.

Justin Miller (2-1) lost in the majors for the first time, giving up six runs in four innings. He was traded with Eric Hinske from Toronto to the Athletics for closer Billy Koch in the off-season.

Texas 10, Detroit 6--Alex Rodriguez homered twice at Arlington, Texas, including a two-run drive in a seven-run second inning, and the Rangers handed the Tigers their fourth consecutive defeat.

Rodriguez hit a solo homer in the fourth inning that stretched Texas’ lead to 8-4 and gave him an AL-leading 12 homers. Rodriguez has three multihomer games this season and 23 in his career.

Dave Burba (3-0) trailed, 4-0, in the second inning before the Rangers came to his rescue. Burba gave up four runs and seven hits in six innings, striking out four and walking two.

Cleveland at Kansas City--The game was rained out and no makeup date was announced. After today’s game, the Indians don’t play at Kansas City until July.