Finally Starting To Deliver On All That Promise

By MARTIN FENNELLY The Tampa Tribune

Published: Apr 11, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - The unsinkable Edwin Jackson.

Sure, why not?

The buzz from the two wins at Yankee Stadium was long gone, replaced by a four-game losing streak and the feeling that a bright Rays beginning would finish in the New England Journal of Medicine. They've been dropping like flies, including starting pitchers Scott Kazmir and Matt Garza.

Not to worry.

Leave it to Edwin Jackson, losing-streak killer and general all-around ace.

After two starts, he's 2-0 with an 0.64 ERA. He hasn't allowed a run in 13 innings, including eight innings of two-hit ball Thursday at the Trop as the Rays beat the Mariners, 7-0.

Yeah, shutout pitching from Edwin Jackson and three RBIs from Mike DiFelice.

Boy, if I had a nickel for every time I've written that …

Coming To The Rescue

Few teams outside of the Tigers needed immediate love more than the Rays, who won three of four to start the season before a funk of losing and injuries.

Thursday, Rays pitchers James Shields and Andy Sonnanstine were dangerously close to each other in the dugout. We waited for them to be taken out by the same magic-bullet foul ball.

The Rays needed hope. Forget that the season is young. They needed a win, any kind of win. Why, they hadn't won since … Edwin Jackson's last start.

Yes, the same Edwin Jackson who took 14 starts and nearly three months to win his first game last season, who wound up 5-15 with a 5.76 ERA and who made potential sound like a four-letter word.

Suddenly he's the Edwin Jackson who allowed just one run while beating the Yankees last weekend, whose fastball and slider befuddled Seattle on Thursday. "Today, he was spectacular," Rays manager Joe Maddon said.

Action Jackson after the game:

"You lose four in a row, somebody has to try come try to put out the fire."

This guy was made of kerosene last season.

"Today is absolutely what he can be," Maddon said. "We really need to move beyond potential here. Potential is beautiful, it's wonderful, but potential belongs in the minor leagues, in my opinion. He's been laden with that. And he still is. He needs an extended period of consistency to put potential behind him."

And with Kazmir and Garza on the shelf, Jackson coming out of the box with these two starts is as needed as it is stunning. Anything helps.

Good News For A Change

Along those lines, Eric Hinske started at third base for Willy Aybar (hamstring) and delivered his second homer this season. And there was the starting catcher.

Mike DiFelice was an original Ray. He has bounced around since he was traded out of Tampa Bay. He had played just 59 games for three different big-league clubs over the past four seasons. Now he's back.

"It's surreal, for sure," DiFelice said.

He wouldn't be here if Rays starting catcher Dioner Navarro wasn't on the disabled list. Monday, DiFelice played in his first Rays game in seven years. Thursday, he singled twice for those three RBIs, helping the Rays out of a slump that saw them score just seven times in four games.

"He wasn't trying to do too much," Maddon said. "He just pokes it over the second baseman's head twice. That's a perfect example of what we need to do, not go up there and try to hit home runs, just hit to the situations."

The situation was the Rays needed good news.

"It was definitely a good day to have things fall right," DiFelice said.

How could they not? Edwin Jackson was on the hill.

We now rejoin your regularly scheduled planet.