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Rays On Top Again

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By MARC LANCASTER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 30, 2008

PITTSBURGH - PITTSBURGH - The Rays reached the halfway point in a season that has exceeded all expectations Sunday with a game that encapsulated how they have come so far so quickly - and how they might be able to carry it even farther.

Overcoming B.J. Upton quite literally booting a ball, Shawn Riggans leaving home plate uncovered with a runner bearing down from third and their hitters stranding nearly a dozen runners on the bases, the Rays beat the Pirates 4-3.

Those mistakes easily could have cost them the game, and probably would have in the past. Not to belabor the point, but things are different now. The Rays kept on pitching Sunday and found a way to scratch across a couple of runs in the eighth inning, and that was good enough to put them back in first place with the best record in the American League.

At 49-32, the Rays are on pace for 98 wins. It's a tantalizing but dangerous term, "on pace." Tampa Bay has guaranteed itself nothing despite all of the remarkable moments that have put the majors' most downtrodden franchise in this position through 81 games. Their work Sunday, however, showed off a growing skill set that should serve the Rays well in their playoff push.

They won despite not playing their best baseball and they handled an opponent they were expected to beat, two critical components in any winning team that were evident throughout a six-game road trip in which they had their share of difficulties but still won five times.

"I don't think we can even start looking ahead right now," said Troy Percival, who got the save Sunday. "... At this point we've got to come out every day and not let any games slip away. But the good sign is we went 5-1 on this road trip and I feel like we let one slip away. You get to that kind of point, you've got a team that's doing something special."

At the very least, the Rays are doing enough right to counterbalance some uncharacteristic sloppiness. Take the first two runs scored by the Pirates on Sunday to even things up against solo homers by Riggans and Willy Aybar that had given the Rays a couple of tenuous leads.

Freddy Sanchez led off the fourth with a double to left-center that Upton actually kicked while trying to run it down, sending it farther away and allowing the runner to move to third. It was the 12th error in the last nine games for the Rays, who committed only 30 in their first 71 games, and it allowed Sanchez to score on a Jason Bay sacrifice fly.

A mental error cost the Rays in the sixth. Pirates sparkplug Jack Wilson was on third after he doubled and was bunted over by Sanchez when Nate McLouth topped a ball out in front of the plate. Riggans and Andy Sonnanstine both went for it, leaving the plate uncovered, and Wilson scampered home as the pitcher turned to throw out McLouth at first.

"Unfortunately, I had my head up my butt for a minute there on the one play at the plate," Riggans said. "But luckily we got out of there with a victory and that run didn't come back to bite us."

The Pirates helped out, as Carlos Pena drew a throw going first-to-third on an Aybar single in the eighth and ended up coming all the way around to score after Xavier Nady fired well wide of third. Aybar cruised into third himself on the play and scored shortly thereafter on a Riggans single.

Aybar, Riggans and Sonnanstine (seven innings, one unearned run) aren't exactly the usual suspects you'd pick out as catalysts - or are they?

"It's been an anonymous first half; nobody has really stood out," Manager Joe Maddon said. "There's no one guy having a killer season, which furthermore makes it even more appealing to me that we're at this juncture, being in the place that we are, knowing that somebody's going to turn into a beast in the second half."

The Rays do seem capable of more than they have shown in certain areas, particularly when it comes to situational hitting and getting runs across the plate. They've got another 81 games to put it all together and make it count.

"This is great, man," Riggans said. "It's only the first half, though. Nobody remembers the first half - everybody remembers the second half, what you did the last day of the season. We've got a lot of work ahead of us."

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