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Thursday, Aug. 31 7:15pm ET
Hernandez notches 28th save | |||||
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -- The Tampa Bay Devil Rays may have found another starter. The oft-injured Paul Wilson worked seven strong innings and Bobby Smith doubled home the go-ahead run in the eighth inning as the Devil Rays beat the Kansas City Royals 2-1 Thursday night. "I'm feeling very strong," said Wilson, who had his longest outing in the majors since Sept. 20, 1996. "Health is priority No. 1 in their eyes and my eyes. They want to make sure I finish this year healthy." Wilson, who missed all of last season after undergoing elbow surgery, allowed one run and five hits in his second start of the season. The right-hander, acquired in a four-player deal with the New York Mets on July 29, also missed parts of the 1997 and '98 seasons because of shoulder surgery. "You'd have to be crazy not to be excited when you see how he pitches and the stuff he has," Tampa Bay manager Larry Rothschild said. "He's at a point in his career where he knows it's time to put it together physically. We just need to keep him healthy." Steve Cox, who went 3-for-3, opened the eighth with a walk from Jeff Suppan (7-8). Pinch-runner Jason Tyner stole second with one out and went to third on Fred McGriff's grounder. Smith, mired in a 1-for-27 slump, doubled to center field. "I think he just made a mistake to Smith," Kansas City manager Tony Muser said. "Got it up and out over the plate." Tony Fiore (1-0) worked a scoreless eighth to get his first major league win. Roberto Hernandez got the final three outs for his 28th save in 34 opportunities. Fiore, who made his big league debut last Sunday, is in his ninth professional season and has made 927 minor league appearances. "It's been a wild week," Fiore said. "It's been great, it really has." Suppan gave up two runs and seven hits in 7 2-3 innings. It was just his second loss in seven decisions since the All-Star break. "He's been great since the All-Star break," Kansas City's Johnny Damon said. "Unfortunately, some nights the offense has to sleep. We didn't show up tonight." The Royals, whose three-game winning streak was snapped, had scored 57 runs in their past eight games. "It is very frustrating," Royals catcher Hector Ortiz said. "We were trying to do everything we can to score runs for him, and we couldn't do it. He worked as hard as he could to keep us in the game, but we didn't perform good." Tampa Bay has won 13 of the last 16 meetings between the teams. Todd Dunwoody's sacrifice fly in the second inning gave the Royals a 1-0 lead. The Devil Rays tied it in the sixth when Smith hit into a double play with the bases loaded. Tampa Bay got a runner to third base in the first, third and seventh innings with two outs. McGriff struck out to end the first, Greg Vaughn flied out in the third and Gerald Williams hit a seventh-inning fly ball. Kansas City's Mike Sweeney had his 16-game hitting streak stopped after going 0-for-2. He also walked and was hit by a pitch. The game took 2 hours, 30 minutes. Tampa Bay has played seven straight games in under three hours. "Good baseball games can be very boring," Muser said. "It was a very good baseball game. You've got to give credit to both clubs. They played well. No brawls. Country hardball." Game notesFiore plans to give the game ball to his parents in Chicago. ... Vaughn, who has been limited to DH duties since Aug. 7 by a right shoulder injury, has just eight hits in his past 61 at-bats. He will have the shoulder examined by Dr. James Andrews before Friday's game. ... Damon was the DH, which allowed Dunwoody to start in center. "I've been trying to get Dunwoody in the lineup," Muser said. "We're going to take a look at a lot of people." ... Damon has a hit in 24 of 25 games. ... Wilson threw six shutout innings last Saturday at Baltimore. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Kansas City Clubhouse Tampa Bay Clubhouse RECAPS Tampa Bay 2 Kansas City 1
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