ST. PETERSBURG — Tuesday the Rays planned to honor retiring Yankees star Derek Jeter with praise and some parting gifts. Wednesday, he left the Trop turf for the final time with the satisfaction of snapping an 0-for-28 slump and scoring the decisive run in the Yankees' 3-2 victory over the Rays.
"That," Rays manager Joe Maddon joked, "was totally unintended."
For many in the crowd of 26,332 that came to see Jeter's last game at the Trop, it was a fond farewell as they stood for his at-bats, cheered his every move and chanted his name. Jeter, who will live here full time, tipped his cap as he came off the field.
"I'm happy we won a game and I got a hit," Jeter said. "I'm going to try to enjoy that. It really feels good."
For the Rays, it was another in a series of frustrating losses as Alex Cobb gave them a good — although not great — start but the offense was insufficient. That included a seventh inning when they were on the wrong side of an immaculate inning for the just the second time, Brandon McCarthy striking out the side on nine pitches.
Basically, the Rays were held to Evan Longoria's 22nd homer and a groundout that gave him 90 RBIs in a season that for much of it seemed disappointing.
And given that it was the Rays' 79th loss, pushing a .500 finish closer to their pile of other unmet goals as they would have to win seven of their nine remaining games, Longoria actually wasn't all that pleased with his accomplishment.
"Personally, it doesn't feel like much of a success if you don't play in the postseason," he said. "The production and all of that is cool, but at the end of the day you're still going to go home and think about what you could have done that helped the team get to the postseason."
After the drama of Tuesday, a hit batter also was a key moment in Wednesday's game. But in this case it was simply a sign that Cobb, who had looked as sharp as when he took a no-hitter into the eighth Thursday at Yankee Stadium, was losing command.
He had zipped through the first nine Yankees and allowed only one single through four innings. But he plunked Chris Young with a curveball to start the fifth, then quickly found himself behind 2-1, allowing doubles to Chase Headley and No. 9 hitter Brendan Ryan.
"I probably lost command before that, and that's why I hit him," Cobb said. "It could be due to the fact that he's a pretty aggressive baserunner and I tried to speed up my delivery a little bit too much, my arm wasn't catching up and I just kind of fell into a bad habit."
The sixth was worse, as he gave up a leadoff single to Jeter — snapping the second-longest hitless skid of his 20-year career (0-for-32 in 2004) — then back-to-back walks to load the bases. A foulout then an impressive leaping catch at the rightfield wall by Wil Myers limited the damage to one run, but after another walk and 39 pitches total in the inning, Cobb was done.
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Explore all your optionsThat also meant the end of his streak of 12 starts allowing no more than two runs, matching the third longest by an AL pitcher in at least 100 years.
Contact Marc Topkin at mtopkin@tampabay.com. Follow @TBTimes_Rays.