Tuesday, July 8, 2003
St. Louis Cardinals at San Francisco Giants
recap | boxscore
Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Oakland Athletics
recap | boxscore
OAKLAND,
Calif. (AP) -- Lou Piniella leaned back in his office chair and made an observation.
"My first win as a blond," the Tampa Bay manager said with a smile.
Two days after he dyed his hair to honor the Devil Rays' first three-game winning streak, Piniella's team made him proud again. Travis Lee had three hits and three RBI, and Ben Grieve doubled and drove in two runs as the Devil Rays snapped a five-game losing streak against Oakland with a 9-3 win over the Athletics on Tuesday night.
Do blonds really have the most fun?
"It was a 9-3 win!" he said.
Barry
Zito, the reigning AL Cy Young winner, gave up a career-high 15 hits in 5
1-3 innings. He also matched a career high with seven runs allowed.
"If you'd have told me we'd get 15 hits off Zito in five or six innings, I would have looked at you a little funny," Piniella said.
The left-hander has been tagged for 35 hits in his last three starts, which include a win, a loss and a no-decision.
"Of
course it looks worse when you get hit by a team that's not Seattle or the
Yankees, but when you're not on your game there's very little leeway, even
against a team below .500," Zito said.
An 8-year-old boy watching the game suffered burns on one of his legs when a fan tossed an explosive device from the upper deck of the Coliseum. The boy was taken to a hospital for treatment. No further information on his condition was immediately available.
A suspect was in police custody after the incident in the bottom of the third inning, the A's said. The device, commonly known as a cherry bomb, made a loud boom as it fell from the third deck to the first tier of bleachers in left field. Players turned to look, causing a short delay.
"I thought a bomb went off it was so loud," Tampa Bay center fielder Rocco Baldelli said. "It was shaking."
Rob Bell (1-2) won in his fifth start since being called up from Triple-A Durham on June 14 -- and the early run support helped. It was his first win since last July 31, when he beat the Yankees.
Bell, who pitched well against Boston's Pedro Martinez in his last start, allowed three runs and four hits in six innings, striking out three and walking three. The Devil Rays are going to activate left-hander Joe Kennedy to start Wednesday -- his first start since May 31. Kennedy, the team's opening day starter, has been on the 15-day disabled list for more than a month because of left shoulder inflammation.
Tampa Bay will send down a pitcher, and Bell hopes he showed management enough to save his spot.
"I think I'm a guy who can get better with every single start," he said. "That's my judgment and hopefully (Piniella's), too."
Erubiel
Durazo homered, doubled and scored twice for the A's, who have lost three
of four. Terrence Long drove in a run with his fourth-inning single, and Ramon
Hernandez hit a sacrifice fly.
The Devil Rays matched a season high with 19 hits to end an eight-game losing streak in the Coliseum, where they last won May 29, 2001. They had lost 12 of their last 13 games to the A's before the offensive onslaught, which also featured three hits by Antonio Perez. Five others had two hits and every Tampa Bay starter had at least one.
The Devil Rays' 17 singles were a club record.
The A's three starters for this series -- Zito, Ted Lilly and Mark Mulder -- had never lost to Tampa Bay, going a combined 11-0.
Zito (8-6) came in 4-0 with an 0.90 ERA in four career starts against the Devil Rays, but struggled almost immediately. He gave up a hit to Perez, the second batter of the game, and things went downhill from there. He threw 111 pitches, 70 strikes.
The Devil Rays scored three runs on five straight hits in the second to give Bell a nice cushion. Bell retired the first seven A's hitters before allowing a double to Mark Ellis.
Game notes
Before the game, the A's placed OF Jermaine Dye on the 15-day disabled list
with a separated right shoulder. The move is retroactive to July 7. To fill
Dye's roster spot, the A's purchased the contract of OF/1B David McCarty from
Triple-A Sacramento. Oakland also designated right-hander Bert Snow for assignment
to make room for McCarty on the 40-man roster. ... The Rays' 13-36 record
against the A's is the club's worst against any AL opponent. The Rays last
won a season series against Oakland in 1998, 6-5. ... Bell is undefeated in
six career starts against Oakland.
Boy suffers burns after fan throws 'cherry bomb'
OAKLAND, Calif. -- An 8-year-old boy watching the Oakland Athletics' game against Tampa Bay on Tuesday night suffered burns on one of his legs when another fan tossed an explosive device from the upper deck of the Coliseum.
The boy was taken to a hospital for treatment. No further information was immediately available.
"That was a shame," Devil Rays manager Lou Piniella said. "I saw the kid fall down in the left-field bleachers. It startled everybody."
A suspect was in police custody, the A's said. The device, commonly known as a cherry bomb, made a loud boom as it fell from the third deck to the first tier of bleachers in left field. Players turned to look, causing a short delay during the third inning.
"I thought a bomb went off it was so loud," Tampa Bay center fielder Rocco Baldelli said. "It was shaking."
It was the latest in a string of trouble with fans this season at the Coliseum.
On April 19, a fan threw a cell phone at Texas Rangers outfielder Carl Everett.
The phone was tossed from the second deck of the Coliseum, said David Rinetti, the A's vice president of stadium operations. The person arrested for throwing the phone was intoxicated, he said.
Security was heightened for the following day's game. Rinetti said staffing was increased and a uniformed police officer was stationed at the visitor's bullpen. In addition, an in-house video monitoring system was being used to monitor the right-field area.
Everett was hit four days after umpire Laz Diaz was attacked by a fan at U.S. Cellular field in Chicago during a White Sox-Royals game.
Later in April, a man at an A's game nearly bit off a police officer's pinkie finger when the officer tried to help Coliseum security break up an argument between fans.
In response to the recent fan violence, a bar at the Coliseum was forced to stop serving drinks after the seventh inning of Athletics' games. The West Side Club now follows the same alcohol restrictions already in place in the stands.
July 9th Update:
A man accused of throwing a powerful firecracker that burned the leg of an 8-year-old boy at an Athletics game was questioned by police Wednesday.
Travares Moore, 21, was arrested without incident Tuesday night, Oakland Police spokeswoman Danielle Ashford said. Witnesses saw Moore throw the explosive device from the third deck to the first tier of bleachers in left field during the third inning of the game, Ashford said.
Moore was being held in lieu of $25,000 bail. He faced charges of assault with a deadly weapon and explosion of a destructive device, police said. No court date had been set.
The boy and his father were taken to Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in nearby Berkeley, where they were treated and released, A's spokesman Jim Young said Wednesday. The boy had first-degree burns on one of his legs and his father complained of ringing in his ears, Young said. Their names and hometown were not released.
The device, commonly known as a cherry bomb, made a loud boom as it fell into the bleachers during the A's game Tuesday night against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Players turned to look, causing a short delay in the game.
"This was not really a lapse in security that led to this incident,'' Young said. "It was a lapse in judgment by a patron who had more in mind than enjoying a baseball game.''