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Rays' Upton Achieves Rare Feat

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 19, 2007

Updated: 09/19/2007 01:22 am

ANAHEIM, Calif. - It's one of the must-have highlights whenever a Jackie Robinson montage is assembled - the fleet-footed infielder taking off from third base and stealing home.

Robinson did it 19 times (Ty Cobb holds the record with 54), but it's just not something you see very often these days.

B.J. Upton's straight steal of home in the third inning of Monday night's game against the Angels was just the Devil Rays' third in their 10 seasons of existence. Carl Crawford was the last to do it, on July 5, 2006 against the Red Sox.

Upton took advantage of Kelvim Escobar's unusually slow windup, telling Rays third-base coach Tom Foley after the first pitch Escobar threw to Brendan Harris that he thought he could make it home. Upton kept measuring Escobar and finally took a bigger lead on the 2-1 offering before bolting for the plate.

'I got a good enough jump to where I knew I had a good shot,' Upton said. 'So at that point I'm looking at Brendan, hoping he doesn't swing.'

Harris had no idea it was coming, and had never had anyone try to steal home with him at the plate before.

'I kind of panicked at first,' Harris said, 'because I'm looking at Escobar and I can feel Upton coming and then I'm like, 'Did I miss a sign? The squeeze isn't on - there's two outs.' Then I'm like, 'Well, what do I do? Do I try to fake bunt? Do I swing through it?' So then I just kind of tried to hang in there as long as I could to keep the catcher back and then just step back and away so he could kind of hook-slide in there.'

Upton slid in easily before catcher Jeff Mathis could lunge to tag him and was greeted in the Rays' dugout as if he had just hit a grand slam.

'He picked a good time to do it - he surprised everybody,' Crawford said. 'It was a good play.'

HELP ON THE WAY: With Crawford sidelined at least through Friday - and possibly the end of the season - with a strained left groin, the Rays are expected to add an outfielder today.

Either Justin Ruggiano or Jason Pridie likely will join the team in time for today's series finale before flying back across the country after the game. Someone would have to be removed from the 40-man roster to make room for either player, but the Rays need the depth.

'I don't want us to get caught short in these games,' Rays manager Joe Maddon said. 'We're down to the nubs in the outfield and I really don't want to stretch Greg Norton that much further in the outfield and I don't want to start putting guys out of position again. I don't like doing that; I don't think it's appropriate.'
Ruggiano hit .309 with 20 homers and 73 RBIs for Durham during the regular season and added four homers in the playoffs as he hit .367. Pridie hit .303 with 11 triples and 14 homers between Montgomery and Durham but slumped to a .133 clip in the playoffs. Both players stole 26 bases this season.

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