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Rays Playing A Role In Race

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 10, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - The Devil Rays have built some momentum the past couple of weeks, playing their best baseball of the season even as they became the first team mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. The 10-game road trip that begins tonight at Boston begins a stretch that will allow the Rays to exert some influence on the postseason race.

'This is the best way for us to conclude this season, is against these people,' Rays manager Joe Maddon said. 'It's bringing out the best in us. It's not about being a spoiler, it's about learning how to play at this time of the year at this level, and I'm really enjoying that.'

The Red Sox don't quite have the division locked up, as the Yankees still loom within striking distance, and they'll undoubtedly see this series as an opportunity to gain important ground. They also have three games at Tropicana Field to look forward to after the Rays return from this trip.

The four-game weekend set at Seattle that follows figures to have the greatest impact on the race. The Mariners seemed destined for the playoffs at one point but are fighting to hang on in the wild-card race. If Seattle continues to flounder this week and the Angels keep up their strong run, it's conceivable the Angels could clinch the AL West title while the Rays are in Anaheim next week.

'For a team like us that's not in it, the best thing we can do is just play hard and possibly keep someone out of it,' Rays SS Josh Wilson said. 'To be able to possibly have one of those teams thinking about the series we came in and hopefully beat them, and that might be the reason they're not going to the playoffs, that's what you're playing for.'

Maddon would prefer the focus remain on the Rays learning to play well in the pressurized environments of meaningful September baseball rather than knocking other teams out, but everyone is after the same result.

'Hopefully at some point next season we're that team that's looking to battle for a wild-card spot or a playoff spot or something like that,' Wilson said. 'These games right now will definitely help prepare you for that, because it's the same type of game.'

MORE HELP: The Rays will add veteran IF Jorge Velandia to their roster today, giving them a true backup shortstop and expanding their roster to 27 players.

Velandia, 32, hit .249 in 120 regular-season games with Durham, starting 83 games at shortstop. He has played in the majors with the Padres, A's and Mets but last made a big-league appearance in 2003.

Someone will have to come off the 40-man roster to clear a spot for Velandia. SS Ben Zobrist, who is unlikely to play again this year because of a strained oblique muscle, could be transferred to the 60-day disabled list to make room.

EASING BACK IN: A pinch-hit, game-winning homer Saturday night didn't quite clear all the pain out of B.J. Upton's left ankle, so the Rays decided to have him DH on Sunday. He likely will be back in center field tonight at Fenway Park.

'In the beginning, he said he thought he was good to go,' said Maddon, 'but I could just see it in his face - it was more a 'win one for the Gipper' kind of a look.'

NOTEWORTHY: The tentative draft of the 2008 schedule the Rays have received includes interleague home games against Lou Piniella's Cubs and the Astros and interleague trips to St. Louis and Pittsburgh, along with the usual home-and-home series with the Marlins. ... Sunday's game was delayed 10 minutes after a partial power outage at Tropicana Field the Rays said was caused by an interruption in one of the Progress Energy lines coming into the stadium. ... Columbus opens the South Atlantic League championship series tonight at West Virginia with RHP Heath Rollins on the mound. ... Durham will send LHP J.P. Howell to the hill Tuesday night when the Bulls host Richmond in the first game of the Governor's Cup.

Marc Lancaster

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