Taste of victory, minus pepperoni

PORT RICHEY — Here was the good news for Rays fan Joe Hofferica: Pitcher Scott Kazmir struck out 10 Texas Rangers on Monday, and Matt Garza struck out 10 on Wednesday.

The bad news? No free 10-inch pizza.

"How long," Hofferica wondered, "can you take the abuse?"

Hofferica and son Michael had stopped by Kane's Furniture in St. Petersburg after attending Wednesday's game. Like the other 50 or so people standing in line at the store, they wanted a gift card for a free Papa John's pizza.

That's because a Kane's Furniture promotion promises the gift card when a Rays pitcher throws 10 strikeouts at a home game. Ticket stubs or print-outs of a flier from a Kane's Web site are all you need to show at any Tampa Bay store.

Except on Wednesday. The St. Petersburg store was all out of the Papa John's cards.

"How can you not be prepared?" asked Hofferica, a 65-year-old appliance installer.

Still, he figured he'd stop at Kane's Furniture in New Port Richey, closer to his home near Hudson.

On Thursday, he did just that. But the New Port Richey location had not yet received the Papa John's cards from the corporate office.

By that point, he was feeling downright saucy.

"They want people to back the Rays, and then these promotional things don't work."

So what happened? In short, it's the Rays' fault, in a good way.

"The St. Petersburg store ran out due to the good fortunes of the Rays," said Lisa Brock, a Kane's spokeswoman.

The back-to-back 10-strikeout games — the first of the season — meant a larger-than-usual run on the Papa John's cards, she said.

The company declined to say how many Papa John's cards it has available at each store or how many it plans to give away.

"They will make good on the claims," Brock said. "The number is significant, it's exciting, and we're happy to support the Rays."

People with ticket stubs from the 10-strikeout home games can present them for the Papa John's cards through the end of the season, she said.

Even those who don't attend can make printouts from www.kanesstrikeout.com, but those are good for only three days.

The New Port Richey store did not get its Papa John's cards from corporate Kane's offices immediately this week because of a "technical glitch," she said.

A customer service representative at the New Port Richey store said Friday that her store had just received 250 cards. Nearly half were gone by noon.

This week's 10-strikeout home games were the first of the season for the Rays. (Last year, a Rays spokesman said, the team had 23.) And the Rays pitchers struck out at least 10 again Friday night.

As for Hofferica, he figures the effort he spent trying to track down a gift card probably would have paid for a large pizza with toppings.

"At four dollars a gallon in gas," he said, "I'm not going to go chasing down Kane's."