Devil Rays Beat Twins In 9th

Miguel Cairo was the forgotten man in Tampa Bay's power-laden lineup, starting the season in a 2-for-12 slump.

But the Devil Rays' No. 9 hitter bounced back with a career-best five RBIs Thursday, including the game-winning single off Hector Carrasco in the ninth as Tampa Bay beat the Minnesota Twins 7-6.

"I just needed to get my confidence back," said Cairo, who also had a two-run double and a two-run triple off starter Joe Mays.

Cairo's ninth-inning single drove in pinch-runner Tony Graffanino from third. Graffanino had run for Herbert Perry, who reached on a two-base error by third baseman Dennis Hocking after Greg Vaughn's leadoff homer against Travis Miller tied the game at 6.

But it was the light-hitting Cairo who helped the Devil Rays split the four-game series and avoid a third straight late-inning letdown.

"Hopefully this is a team where you check your egos at the door," Vaughn said. "And you don't care who gets it done, just as long as it gets done."

In Cairo's first three seasons, he never had more than three RBIs in a game.

"Miguel's played a while now and yo knew his time would come and he'd be able to recover in a big way," Devil Rays manager Larry Rothschild said. "Today he got the bit hits."

Hocking did, too.

He had three straight doubles in his first start of the season, a performance that was overshadowed by his costly error in the ninth.

"Everybody knows that's not my strength," Hocking said of the doubles. "Throwing the ball into the bullpen is one of my strengths."

Twins manager Tom Kelly said first baseman David Ortiz shared some of the blame for stretching instead of stepping off the bag to block the bad throw.

"Get off the base, catch the ball, prevent the merry-go-round," Kelly said. "It's nice to want to make a play and do well and stretch and catch the ball. As much as you appreciate that effort, and we all do, it's not the right play."

But Kelly took himself to task, too, for leaving in Mays too long and for sending Miller out for the ninth after he had struck out Jose Canseco and Fred McGriff in a perfect eighth.

Reliever Jim Mecir (1-0) got the victory despite surrendering a two-run single to Ron Coomer to give the Twins a 6-5 lead in the seventh. Roberto Hernandez pitched the ninth for his first save.

Carrasco (1-1) took the loss.

Kevin Stocker's RBI single and Cairo's two-run triple gave Tampa Bay a 3-1 lead in the third. The Twins tied it in their half of the inning on RBI doubles by Cristian Guzman and Ortiz, then went in front 4-3 in the fifth on Hocking's third double.

Hocking led off the game with a double and scored on Matt Lawton's single.

Tampa Bay starter Dan Wheeler gave up four earned runs on nine hits in six innings. Mays allowed five earned runs on eight hits in 6 2-3 innings. He struck out five, including Canseco three times.

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