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It's Time For The Rays' Best To Be Their Best

Tribune photo by JAY CONNER

Carlos Pena scoops up a ball for an out against the Royals at Tropicana FIeld.

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 8, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - It's the kind of moment the Big Ray Machine will need to fully extend this magic carpet ride.

Carlos Pena tied Monday's game with the Royals at Tropicana Field with a solo home run off Joakim Soria, Kansas City's All-Star pitcher. Pena pumped a fist between first and second.

Never mind that the Rays lost 7-4 in 10 innings, the only blemish on a seven-game homestand that sent them flying high to New York and a series with the Yankees, who cling to life.

They need more moments like that from Pena, among others.

If you told me before the season the Rays would have the best record in baseball, I would have told you had a screw loose.

If you told me they'd have the best record in baseball without Pena, Carl Crawford and B.J. Upton having career years, not a one, I would have asked if you ever owned a screw in the first place.

But here the Rays are.

"Imagine if it all came together," Pena said last month.

We're still trying.

Time To Get Going

It's past the midway point and it still hasn't quite come together for Pena, who was voted the American League Comeback Player of the Year for his 46 homers and 121 RBIs and was awarded a fat contract.

He hit a homer and drove in five runs against the Royals on Friday. He hit that homer Monday. That's 13 on the season. He also stranded eight runners across his four at-bats.

He shows signs.

Then he doesn't.

No one was expecting another 46-121 season.

Nobody was expecting him to hit .232, either.

For that matter, Crawford and Upton haven't truly hit their strides, those kind of surges that can carry teams for a week.

Upton hit 24 homers last season. He has six this season. Rays backup catcher Shawn Riggans has four.

We're not trying to rain on the parade. But sooner or later, the 2-3-4s are going to have to step up and stay up.

Crawford and Upton are having solid seasons, just not great ones.

Crawford is hitting .287, has scored 61 runs and is on pace to drive in 90-plus runs. And he hit that huge grand slam to help beat the Cubs. He stole his 300th career base Monday, amazing for someone not yet 27.

Upton should drive in 90 or more runs, too. He's batting .277 and leads the Rays in walks and stolen bases. He hit that leadoff homer to start the Red Sox series just right.

But there haven't been enough of those moments.

Crawford and Upton should enjoy better second halves. There's too much talent, and should be more than enough drive, at least more than Crawford showed on one play Monday.

Rays manager Joe Maddon stuck Crawford in center field to give Upton a day off. Crawford hadn't played center in more than two years. I have no idea why he was out there myself, but that was no excuse for him taking his time to field a ground ball hit up the middle, so much time that a Kansas City runner scored all the way from first.

"I just got a little lackadaisical," Crawford said. "I didn't think he was running. Then I looked up and saw the third-base ... It was bad effort on my part. I probably could have gotten to the ball quicker."

It's a pennant race.

It's about great players being great.

Now's the time.

Imagine The Possibilities

Pena spent most of the first half hacking at pitches he wouldn't have begun to have swung at last season. He has the batting average and strikeouts (81) to prove it. Lucky for him so many other Rays have picked up the slack or this would be a major story.

Maybe the other guys can keep up that pace, guys like Dioner Navarro, Evan Longoria, Eric Hinske, Gabe Gross and the rest. And there's the pitching and defense, invariably superb.

But the games will get bigger as this season rolls on, and there will be times when it will come down to the best at their best. Think the Red Sox don't look to Manny and Ortiz? Think the Yankees don't look to Jeter and A-Rod?

Your best being the best.

Now's the time.

Just imagine.

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