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Rays Walk Off With Win In 10 Innings

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By MARC LANCASTER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 26, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - Sometime between tonight and Sunday, the Yankees are all but certain to lock up another trip to the postseason.

The Devil Rays aren't going to be able to hold them off single-handedly, as much as they might relish that opportunity, but they were fully aware of the implications of their 7-6 victory in the 10th inning Tuesday night.

After Detroit shut out the Twins earlier in the evening, the Yankees needed a win to clinch their 13th consecutive playoff berth. When New York bolted to an early 5-0 lead, with four of those runs coming on one swing of Alex Rodriguez's bat, the New Yorkers couldn't have envisioned that a 32-year-old without a homer in the majors would match the likely MVP's feat, nor that their eighth pitcher of the evening would serve up a walk-off homer to a discarded Yankee.

Bizarrely enough, that's what happened. Dioner Navarro, who originally signed with the Yankees as a 16-year-old, kept the visiting clubhouse champagne-free for the time being by lifting a 2-0 fastball from Jeff Karstens over the right-field wall leading off the bottom of the 10th.

"Maybe we'll make it hard on them," Navarro said. "I know the Tigers won, so they're going to have to wait another day. Nothing personal – we're just going to go out there and play hard every day."

It's all the Rays can do as they try to avoid adding to the 92 losses they already have accumulated in another lost season. And it's games like this that are readily seized as touchstones in the hope that better times aren't that far off.

"We've stood toe-to-toe with all the contenders," said Rays manager Joe Maddon. "Boston and then to Seattle and then to L.A. and then back here against Boston and New York, I like the way our guys have gone about their business."

The Rays were in a similar situation Saturday night and thought they had held off first-place Boston for at least one more day when Carlos Pena's second homer of the game gave them a late lead. The Red Sox responded with two homers in the ninth to earn their trip, but the scene didn't repeat itself three days later.

Before Navarro stepped to the plate and finished it off, Jorge Velandia provided the unforeseeable boost that brought the Rays back into a game that easily could have been mailed in.

Everyone expects Rodriguez to do what he did – the grand slam was his 53rd home run of the season and the 517th of his career – but it was safe to say no one in the building thought Velandia would match him. The journeyman infielder had never homered in 158 big-league games dating back to 1997 and went deep just five times in 120 games for Durham this year.

He caught a Brian Bruney pitch just right, though, sending it 403 feet to left for a stunning 6-5 Rays lead. That shot earned Velandia a curtain call – another career first – from the Rays fans in attendance.

"I'm a small guy. I don't try to hit home runs," said Velandia. "It happened, and I'm glad it happened to me."

He said he was "embarrassed" when his ecstatic teammates nudged him out to wave to the cheering crowd but the moment meant a lot to him. His family was in attendance and got to witness a highlight that surely ranks near the top of the list for a player who began his professional career in 1992.

"It was bedlam," Maddon said of the scene in the Rays' dugout. "The little curtain call, I liked that."

The Rays would have preferred Velandia's homer to be the deciding blow, but they had to do a little more work to make that happen. After a high-wire act by Jon Switzer produced a scoreless seventh, Dan Wheeler got in trouble early in the eighth. Jorge Posada led off with a double and was replaced by pinch-runner Bronson Sardinha and Robinson Cano singled to put runners on the corners. After Wheeler struck out pinch-hitter Jason Giambi, Melky Cabrera lifted a fly ball to left.

Jonny Gomes had time to position himself and unleashed a strong throw toward the plate as Sardinha tagged up. The ball got there first, but Navarro had to reach toward the infield to grab it, then swipe at the sliding Sardinha. As he made contact, the ball squirted loose, allowing the tying run to score.

"That was my bad," said Navarro. "Even though the throw as a little bit off-line, after I made the catch I tried to make a swipe tag and it was horrible. I felt really bad right there."

Needless to say, the catcher made up for it. He already had made an offensive contribution, with an RBI double in the sixth that drove in the Rays' first run of the evening and served as the only hit besides Velandia's homer in the pivotal inning.

The Rays managed just five hits all night but walked 11 times, tying a club record. All four players who drew free passes from Bruney and Edwar Ramirez in the sixth came around to score – necessary conversions after the Rays failed to move any of the five batters Yankees starter Kei Igawa walked all the way around the bases.

Stranding runners on second and third in the first inning and leaving the bases loaded in the third would, on many nights, have been more than enough to add another loss to the Rays' ledger. Tuesday, they had enough to delay the inevitable.

"It says a little bit about us, the character," said Navarro. "We're young and we want to show the world that we can play against anybody in the league. Being 5-0 down against the Yankees, not too many teams can get back into the game, and we did. It says a lot about us."

Reporter Marc Lancaster can be reached at (813) 259-7227 or mlancaster@tampatrib.com.

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