D-Rays Keep Phillies in Funk

Ben Grieve`s best game in six weeks couldn`t have come at a worse time for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Grieve hit his fourth career grand slam and drove in five runs Tuesday night, helping the Tampa Bay Devil Rays to a 9-5 victory over the slumping Phillies.

Philadelphia has lost seven of nine games to have its lead in the NL East shrink to 2 1-2 games over the Atlanta Braves. Greg Vaughn also homered to help rookie left-hander Joe Kennedy (2-0) become the first AL pitcher to begin his career by winning consecutive starts since Chicago`s Kip Wells in 1999.

"I`m happy to see Ben Grieve swing the bat like he can," said Devil Rays manager Hal McRae, who has constantly juggled his batting order in an attempt to get the core of the attack – Grieve, Vaughn and Fred McGriff – in synch.

"If we get the three guys in the middle swinging the bat well, we`ll put runs on the board and be OK We`ve been waiting all year for them to get hot, and it appears that they`re heating up."

Grieve, who hit his other three grand slams last season with Oakland, pulled out of a 1-for-18 slump with a run-scoring single in the third inning. His second homer in his last 119 at-bats finished a five-run seventh that made it 9-2.

The drive to right field off Eddie Oropesa struck one of the catwalks that help support the roof of Tropicana Field. Vaughn`s fifth-inning homer off Amaury Telemaco (5-2) bounded off the same catwalk in left field.

The Phillies are 3-7 in June after going 20-8 in May and opening an eight-game lead over the Braves.

"We were picked for dead last. I don`t worry about the Braves. It`s way too early," said Philadelphia manager Larry Bowa.

"You`re going to have ups and downs. That`s the nature of the game. Right now, we`re not doing too much of anything as a team ... When you`re going good, everything works. When you`re going bad, nothing works."

Kennedy (2-0) shut down the Phillies until Scott Rolen singled to lead off the seventh, and Travis Lee followed with his 10th homer, trimming Tampa Bay`s lead to 4-2.

Bobby Abreu hit a three-run homer for Philadelphia in the eighth inning off Dan Wheeler.

Kennedy, making his second big league appearance, allowed two runs and four hits in 6 1-3 innings. McRae`s decision to remove him after Lee`s homer was booed by an announced crowd of 12,602.

Vaughn went 10-for-22, homered once, drove in five runs and scored 10 to help the Devil Rays, who have the worst record in the majors, win three of six games last week.

He was 2-for-4 Tuesday, adding a run-scoring single off Vicente Padilla for his 1,000th career RBI in the seventh inning. Jason Tyner had a RBI single for Tampa Bay, off to a 3-1 start in interleague play.

Kennedy was promoted to the majors after going 6-0 with a 0.99 ERA in 11 starts for Double-A Orlando and Triple-A Durham. He made his big league debut last Wednesday at Toronto, allowing two runs and five hits in five innings of a 6-2 victory over the Blue Jays.

The rookie left-hander yielded one hit and faced the minimum of nine batters in the first three innings Tuesday. He walked Doug Glanville and gave up a one-out double to Abreu in the fourth, then escaped the jam by striking out Rolen and retiring Pat Burrell on a line drive to left field.

"He`s pitching the way he pitched in the minor leagues. That`s what we told him to do," McRae said. "`Don`t change anything. The distance to home plate is the same. The width of the plate is the same. Pitch your game.` He doesn`t know a lot about the hitters, but we`re not concerned about that. He has the ability to make pitches."

Telemaco, coming off his first career complete game, allowed six runs and nine hits in 6 1-3 innings.

Notes: A moment of silence was observed before the game in memory of former Southern California and Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach John McKay, who died Sunday ... Glanville extended his hitting streak to 15 games with a first-inning single ... Abreu is the only player to appear in all 62 games for Philadelphia this season. He has started all but one ... Damian Rolls (.307) is second among AL rookies in batting behind Seattle`s Ichiro Suzuki.

(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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Author: 6 ABC - Action News