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'No-Name' Rays Are Finally Getting Noticed

Tribune photo by KELVIN MA

Gabe Gross watches the flight of his 2-run home run in the fourth inning to put the Rays up 3-1 against the Red Sox

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By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 1, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - You would expect the team with the best record in baseball to run a superstar out there at most every position. The best team is supposed to have players who are household names, players with lordly status.

If not that, at least they are supposed to have players people across this great land have actually heard of.

Then there are the Tampa Bay Rays, America's darling baseball "team" - for that is what they are. Of course they have some of the best young talent in the game, but they are so much more than just that. They are role players named Gabe Gross, fill-ins like Willy Aybar, and arms like Grant Balfour.

They are J.P. Howell.

They just keep winning.

The rest of baseball may not know them by name, but by now everyone is well acquainted with their work. So it was again Monday night, as thunder and rain rumbled and gully washed outside Tropicana Field. As has happened so many nights in this increasingly magical and blessed season, the pests came through again.

Gross had a two-run homer. Aybar worked a two-out walk and scored on a double by Carlos Pena (him, we've heard of). Balfour defused a potentially nasty situation by retiring both batters he faced in the seventh, just when it looked like Boston might have something going.

And there was Howell, summoned in emergency relief with two outs in the ninth after Troy Percival appeared to hurt his hamstring again. Howell got Julio Lugo to line out softly to shortstop with the tying run on third.

"You've just got to do it, man," Howell said.

So there it was, again.

The Rays beat the World Series champion Boston Red Sox 5-4, which means these guys continue to sit atop major-league baseball even though the calendar flips to July today. If anyone needs more reason to wrap their arms around what has become one of baseball's all-time feel-good stories, the Rays just provided.

Timing Is Everything

If you like an underdog, this is your team.

If you like to see separate parts come together and fit perfectly in a way no one could have foreseen, this is your team too.

"The way we're put together, it has to be this way. We don't have Big Papi and Manny Ramirez in the middle of the lineup," Gross said.

"We don't have A-Rod and Jason Giambi and everybody who hits 50 home runs. We've got a bunch of guys who play ball and for us to be successful, we're going to have to be good at the right times."

For Gross, that came in the fourth inning. The Rays were ahead 1-0 with two outs and Dioner Navarro at first after a walk. In the on-deck circle, Gross noticed Boston starter Justin Masterson struggling with command against Navarro. He was ready.

"He was missing off the plate," Gross said. "Sooner or later I thought he might miss over the plate."

Masterson did. Gross hit it deep into the right-field seats.

That has been basically the way the Rays have gotten this done. It's rarely easy - the drama with Percival in the ninth is nothing new - but when you look back after the game you see big contributions from players who, put it this way, aren't regulars on "SportsCenter."

"They've all done well. You can't single out one guy on this team as being the reason we're in the position we're in," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "It's a team in every sense of the word and that's what I'm most pleased about."

Rivalry Brewing

Most everyone has given into the notion that the Rays are going to be in this race for the long haul, which makes the prospect of more nights like this extremely appealing. The Trop is a different place when there is a crowd like the 34,145 who showed up Monday. It is lively, fun and awfully noisy.

And you haven't truly arrived in baseball until you have a rival. The Rays will never be Boston's enemy No. 1 - some team from New York will always have that distinction - but it's safe to say they have the Red Sox's attention now. The games between these two from here on out could be something special.

If the Rays keep this up, there's even a chance those "no-names" might have to deal with some newfound fame. If not, that's OK too.

"Everybody is standing out right now. Everybody is having their share in the win," starting pitcher James Shields said. "Everybody is pitching. Everybody is getting their hits. It's a whole team effort. That's the great part about it."

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