Devil Rays Sting Blue Jays

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays wouldn't allow themselves to lose.

Gerald Williams snapped an eighth-inning tie with an RBI single and scored on Miguel Cairo's triple as the Devil Rays overcame the sloppiest fielding performance in team history to beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 Friday night.

A team-record five errors three by shortstop Kevin Stocker and one by his late-inning replacement Ozzie Guillen kept the outcome in doubt until closer Albie Lopez struck out Raul Mondesi with the tying run at first in the ninth.

"This is a game I sensed early that we were dragging," said manager Larry Rothschild, who attributed the sluggishness to the Devil Rays arriving home in the early-morning hours after winning 1-0 at New York the night before.

The Devil Rays beat right-hander Chris Carpenter (3-4) for the first time after losing to him four times the last two seasons. Rick White (1-2) pitched two innings of relief to get the win, and Lopez worked the ninth fo his second save.

"I had a chance to win the game in that eighth inning ... I had to do my job and get out of that and I didn't do it," said Carpenter, who allowed eight hits, struck out two and walked none in his second complete game of the season.

"I gave up two runs with two outs. Unfortunately, I didn't make the pitches when I had to make them."

The Blue Jays scored an unearned run off Bryan Rekar in the first when second baseman Cairo mishandled a cutoff throw from right field.

They added another in the seventh off White, tying it at 2, when Stocker was charged with a double error for booting Homer Bush's two-out grounder and then throwing wildly past Cairo at second.

"They gave us a lot of opportunities, and we didn't advantage of it," said Toronto manager Jim Fregosi, whose team outhit the Devil Rays 10-8 but stranded nine baserunners to Tampa Bay's two. "They made five errors. We're supposed to win the game."

Alex Gonzalez hit a solo homer off Lopez in the ninth.

Carpenter was 4-0 with an 0.34 ERA against Tampa Bay with three complete games and two shutouts the past two seasons, and the Devil Rays had to scrap for everything they got against the right-hander again this time.

Williams singled, moved to second when Cairo was hit by a pitch and stole third before scoring when Greg Vaughn grounded into a double play in the first. Carpenter yielded a single to Vinny Castilla in the second, then retired 11 in a row before Stocker led off the sixth with a single.

Williams moved Stocker up with a slow grounder to first and Cairo followed with a RBI single that enabled Rekar to leave the game with a chance to get his first victory since last July 10.

But Stocker's double error kept White from getting through the seventh without yielding the tying run.

"Even though we were making errors, everybody kept busting their tails," White said.

Toronto wasted several opportunities against Rekar, going 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position the first six innings. The Tampa Bay starter twice worked out of jams after the Blue Jays got a runner to second with no outs.

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