ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- When Orlando Hudson's bloop hit fell in shallow right field for an RBI single in the third inning, Mark Hendrickson figured he and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays were in for a long day against the Toronto Blue Jays.
The left-hander, facing his former team for the first time, just didn't know how long.
"It's baseball. What can you do?" Hendrickson said after the Blue Jays got a season-high 20 hits in a 14-0 victory Thursday.
Toronto scored seven runs on eight hits in three-plus innings against Hendrickson, who thought he wasn't hit that hard.
"It's unfortunate against this team because I was pretty prepared to give them my best, and I'm sure likewise they were the same," he said. "It felt like everything was sharp. I wasn't getting too frustrated. I was just kind of laughing a little bit. Realistically, there's nothing you can do."
Eric Hinske had three hits and drove in three runs in support of right-hander Miguel Batista.
Batista (7-5) has won seven of his last nine decisions after going winless in his first seven starts. The right-hander allowed five singles in seven sharp innings, struck out three and walked one. The Blue Jays have posted shutouts in three of his last five outings.
The closest Tampa Bay came to scoring was the second inning, when Batista struck out Geoff Blum to get out of a jam with the bases loaded. Terry Adams pitched the eighth and Kerry Ligtenberg the ninth to finish the five-hitter.
Hudson, Josh Phelps, Dave Berg and Reed Johnson all drove in two runs apiece for the Blue Jays.
"Don't be looking for 20 hits, 14 runs every game. That's not going to happen in baseball," Hudson said. "We just hope to keep grinding it out, keep throwing the ball well, keep swinging the bat well."
The margin of victory was the biggest for Toronto since an 18-1 win at Kansas City on May 16, 2003. Hendrickson, 9-9 with a 5.51 ERA as a rookie for the Blue Jays last season, was the winning pitcher that day.
The Devil Rays lost for just the fourth time in their last 21 games. They were a major league-best 20-5 in June, and by splitting four games with Toronto are 9-1-2 in their last 12 series.
"It wasn't a good day. It was ugly," Tampa Bay manager Lou Piniella said. "Sometimes you get beat 14-0 and get it out of the way. ... It's one game. It's one loss. Now what we need really is to come back with a nice, respectable road trip."
The Devil Rays went 4-3 on their homestand, capping a remarkable six-week stretch that's turned their season around.
Starting pitching was the culprit in all three losses. Tampa Bay outscored the opposition 18-8 in the four victories and was outscored 29-4 in the three losses.
"I told people we weren't out of the woods. These things are going to happen time to time," Piniella said.
"There were many times last year and early this season where a 4-3 homestand would have been acceptable. This one is, too, but everybody expects a little more."
All of Phelps' and Berg's RBIs came against Hendrickson (5-6), who made his first start against his former team since being obtained by Tampa Bay in an offseason trade that also involved Colorado.
The Blue Jays scored on Berg's RBI double and Hudson's bloop single in the third, then added five runs -- two of them unearned -- against the 6-foot-9 Hendrickson in the fourth.
Phelps doubled with the bases loaded to drive in the first two runs in the fourth. Frank Menechino also had an RBI single, and the other two runs scored on a fielder's choice and Hinske's grounder to first base.
Berg's run-scoring single off Bartolome Fortunato made it 8-0 in the fifth. The Blue Jays added two in the eighth off Trever Miller on Hudson's RBI triple and Johnson's groundout.
Hinske had a two-run single in Toronto's four-run ninth against Jorge Sosa. Johnson and Gregg Zaun each added an RBI single.
Notes
Menechino had a career-high four hits. ... In his last two starts, Hendrickson has allowed 11 runs (nine earned) and 13 hits in seven innings. ... Blue Jays 1B Carlos Delgado, out since May 30 with a ribcage injury, is expected to return this weekend against Montreal in his native Puerto Rico. ... By going 20-5 in June, the Devil Rays became the first team in the majors to win 20 in a month since Oakland went 20-9 last August. ... The Blue Jays have allowed eight earned runs in their last seven victories, compared to 52 in their last six losses.
AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service
Copyright 2004, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
