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No Time To Relax For Rays

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By BRETT McMURPHY The Tampa Tribune

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 4, 2008

Updated: 07/04/2008 12:23 am

ST. PETERSBURG - When Dan Wheeler struck out Jason Varitek for the final out of the Rays' 7-6 victory against the Red Sox on Wednesday night, Raymond the mascot strutted onto the field extending a broom toward the orange-lit roof.

Among the giddy Rays fan was one holding a "Sweep Caroline" sign - mocking the Red Sox's "Sweet Caroline" anthem.

Tonight, when the Rays return to action against the Kansas City Royals, Tropicana Field will have a much different look, a much calmer atmosphere.

It will have a much different feel than the Red Sox series, so can the Rays put that emotional series behind them?

"You just have to," pitcher Scott Kazmir said Wednesday night. "You have to forget about it. You can't just go 'We swept the Red Sox, so we're good.'

"We have a goal in mind, and that's to play in October. I think it forgetting about Boston is already done with now. We're looking forward to Kansas City. It's like we're on a mission."

The back-to-back series against the Red Sox and Royals is similar to last month when the Rays hosted the Cubs and Astros. The Rays swept the Cubs, then owners of the best record in the majors, only to lose two of three to the sub-.500 Astros.

"It's interesting to see what we do," third baseman Evan Longoria said. "I think we'll respond fine and we'll be all right. We had the big Cubs series and big sweep of them and kind of let our guard down the game after a 4-3 loss to Houston and came out dead. We had an off day Thursday; we'll be refreshed and ready to go."

Center fielder B.J. Upton said the opponent shouldn't matter for the Rays.

"We take it game by game, regardless of the team," Upton said. "We expect to win every ball game, it doesn't matter who we're playing. The Red Sox series is over with. It's in the books."

Longoria said the Rays, owners of the best record in the majors, realize they must play with the same intensity against the Royals, who have the American League's third-worst record.

"I think we understand this Kansas City series, and series that are out of our division, are the series we really need to win," Longoria said. "It always happens where the teams in the A.L. East just beat up each other. The Yankees and Red Sox are going to go after it now.

"Everybody beats up on each other in the division. We have to focus on winning the Kansas City series and the Cleveland series. Those are going to be the series that gets us over the hump and into the playoffs."

While the Royals have a 0.6 percent chance of making the playoffs, according to coolstandings.com, they have a 100 percent chance of wiping out what the Rays accomplished against the Red Sox if the Rays have a letdown this weekend.

"That's one of the things I talked to Cliff Floyd about," Longoria said. "He stressed the importance about when teams who we know we can beat come in, we've got to beat them.

"The biggest thing for us - it's easy to bump up your intensity to play the Red Sox when the building is like this, but that will be the true test for us as far as how far we've come when maybe we have 15-20,000 in here and it's not as loud and we're playing the Royals."

Rays manager Joe Maddon said his club expects to win no matter who is the opponent.

"We do expect to win on a nightly basis regardless of who it's against," Maddon said. "Once again it's a great feeling and we've worked to get to this point to earn the right to have that feeling. Now we have to maintain it.

"We can't play down to the perceived ability of our opponents."

Reporter Brett McMurphy can be reached at (813) 259-7928 or bmcmurphy@tampatrib.com.

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