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High Praise for Camp |
 |
Reliever working hard to find his rythm, and it shows
ST.
PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Hidden in the Devil Rays' 10-8 win over the Yankees
on Monday -- in which most of the attention was paid to Alex Rodriguez's
two home runs as well as the Rays handing their American League East rivals
their fourth loss in a row -- was the performance of Shawn Camp.
Camp entered the game to start the seventh inning with the Devil Rays leading,
7-6, and he immediately allowed a single to Derek Jeter. But the 31-year-old
right-hander got Bobby Abreu to ground into a double play to short and then
struck out Rodriguez to end the inning.
"That was huge for Camper," said manager Joe Maddon. "He's
been coming back slowly this year, but he's a big part of our bullpen. Last
year he was the one guy who really did good work for us when something was
going on, and he's capable of getting ground ball, a double play like the
one he got yesterday."
Maddon praised Camp for rebounding from a difficult start to the season
in which he allowed five runs, four earned, in his first five appearances.
In his past five outings, though, Camp has surrendered only two hits with
no runs in 4 1/3 innings while striking out four.
"I love what he's doing now," said Maddon. "He's held true
the whole year, and he hasn't made excuses. He's continued to work, and
last night I saw the sinker really dive. That was the difference. It had
some depth to it, not flat. That just shows me he's pitching with a lot
more confidence and he's a lot more loose."
Camp said that he struggled at the beginning of the year because he was
pitching behind in the count due to being a little out of sync.
"My timing was off, and I ran into a little bit of a rut," said
Camp. "I was just trying to work on some things, throw more changeups."
After working with pitching coach Jim Hickey, though, Camp slowly redeveloped
the same habits that allowed him to compile a 7-4 record with a 4.68 ERA
over a club-record 75 appearances in 2006.
"[Hickey] just talked to me about my approach," said Camp. "A
lot of it has just been working on my aggressiveness and timing."
Camp said that he found his rhythm last week at home against the Indians,
a game he entered with two outs and the bases loaded. He forced Jason Michaels
to ground out on a 2-1 count to end the inning, which he says was a boost
to his confidence and his technique.
"That was big for me," he said. "Now, in three nights in
a row, I've had a lot of ground balls with a lot of success."