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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Matt Perisho got his usual amount of rest the night before a start, which means he didn't get much sleep at all before helping the Texas Rangers snap a nine-game losing
streak.
The left-hander, making his first start of the season and 12th
of his career, pitched six scoreless innings and AL batting leader Ivan Rodriguez drove in two runs Saturday for a 5-0 victory over
the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Perisho (2-0) said he stayed up all night watching "four movies
on HBO and SportsCenter about 10 times" before going to bed about
8:30 a.m. and receiving a wakeup call an hour later.
The routine, he said, was not out of the ordinary for him.
"I have trouble sleeping before every game that I start. Even
in the minor leagues I'd be up until four or five, thinking about
the next day, what I wanted to do," Perisho said. "But there's
some pressure being on a nine-game losing streak and trying to
figure out how to get out of it."
Perisho (2-0) limited the Devil Rays to singles by Bobby Smith
and John Flaherty and walked three and struck out six in his first
start since the final game of the 1999 season.
Tim Crabtree and John Wetteland finished the three-hit shutout.
Rodriguez, who went 2-for-4 to raise his league-leading average
to .376, finished a four-run second inning with a two-run single
off Cory Lidle (0-2). Royce Clayton and Luis Alicea also had RBI
singles in the second, and Clayton drove in another run in the
sixth when he grounded out.
The Rangers, off to the poorest June start in team history, had
dropped the first seven games on a nine-game road trip to match
Kansas City for the longest losing streak in the majors this
season.
"It's just good to come out and get a win instead of having to
defend yourself on why you're losing," Texas outfielder Rusty
Greer said. "But we've only won one in a row, so we can't run in a
corner and hide right now. We've got to come back tomorrow and try
to put another victory up."
The Devil Rays were shut out for the second time this season. But
worse was news that Greg Vaughn, who is hitting .289 with 13 homers
and 36 RBI, has been placed on the 15-day disabled list with a
right hamstring strain that's bothered him since May 26 and kept
him out of the lineup since Wednesday.
"It's just not getting better," manager Larry Rothschild said,
"and the more he's done it, the worse it gets. ... He doesn't want
to keep going like this, and he doesn't want to keep going like
this."
Perisho became the eighth different pitcher to start a game for
Texas, which had not lost nine in a row since a 10-game slide in
July 1995. He has been the Rangers' long reliever, and in 10
previous major league starts was 0-4 with a 9.35 ERA.
Tampa Bay managed to put runners on base in four of the first
five innings, but none advanced farther than second and Smith was
the only Devil Ray to reach on a hit. Perisho walked Randy Winn in
the first and Clayton and third baseman Mike Lamb committed errors
to allow runners on in the third and fifth innings.
Flaherty singled off Perisho after the left-hander walked Fred
McGriff with two outs in the sixth. The Texas starter got out of
the jam by striking out Smith on three pitches, then manager Johnny
Oates turned the game over to the Rangers bullpen.
Crabtree allowed one hit in two innings and Wetteland worked a
1-2-3 ninth.
"We didn't hit. That's the story," Tampa Bay's Bubba Trammell
said. "It was one of those days when we did hit the ball hard, we
hit it at somebody."
Lidle lasted 3 1/3 innings, ending a stretch of 19 consecutive
games in which Tampa Bay gotten five or more innings out of a
starting pitcher. The streak was the longest in the majors and has
played a big role in the team's recent success.
The last-place Devil Rays, who were trying to win four straight
for the first time since last August, are 10-6 since May 31.
Game
notes
Rodriguez has a hit in 25 consecutive games against the
Devil Rays ... Alicea started at second base after missing one game
because of tightness in his left groin and filling in for injured
DH David Segui against the Devil Rays Friday night. Segui remained
sidelined after fouling a pitch off the top his left foot Thursday
and Friday. He is listed as day-to-day ... Rangers RF Dave Martinez
is hitless in his last 18 at-bats ... Plate umpire Chuck Meriwether
was struck just above the left knee by a foul tip in the seventh
inning, but did not leave the game ... Injuries have forced a
drastic makeover of the Tampa Bay roster. The opening day lineup
featured eight players 30 years or older. Saturday's had two.
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