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Percival, Floyd Love Where Rays Are Headed

Associated Press photo

Cliff Floyd, an MLB veteran, thinks his younger teammates have the right attitude when they take the field this season.

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 13, 2008

Updated:

ST. PETERSBURG - Between them, the newcomers have a quarter century of major-league experience. Each man owns a World Series ring. They're known leaders. They've been on good teams, bad teams, in-between teams and teams that weren't teams at all. So they know when something is coming together.

"You can tell," Troy Percival said.

"You see the signs," Cliff Floyd said.

The Rays Dream Sequence had the wind at its back Monday at Tropicana Field as it began a four-game series with Yesterday's News (the broken-down Yankees). Percival, with nine saves in 10 chances, is a big reason why. Floyd, his bat fresh off the disabled list, could be a reason the feeling lingers.

Their voices carry in this clubhouse. They can tell. They see signs.

"We're growing every day," Percival said.

"I've been on teams, in seasons, when you waited until the last possible second to go to the park," Floyd said. "Right now? You want to shower and shave at noon. You're ready to go. What's next?"

Continuing To Grow

True, thousands are saying to heck with the last second and not showing up at all. Rays Fever - Ignore it! But that doesn't take away from this start, which didn't begin to stop against the Yankees, who fell 7-1 to the craze that's breathing right down Boston's neck, before a teeming mass of 13,932 at the Trop.

We know Yankees manager Joe Girardi had the Yankees swear off ice cream and sweets in the clubhouse, but pitching and hitting, too?

Sure sign of the apocalypse: The Rays defeated Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte, who last lost at the Trop 10 years ago. Tony Saunders got the win for the Rays that night and Aaron Ledesma drove in two runs. We now return you to the new millennium.

Yes, once upon a time, anybody came to the Trop to wait out the Rays. Percival says it was like that when he was throwing for the Angels.

"You'd come in and you'd have the wild card of, 'Man, hey, they have some guys who can play,' but at the end of the day, they'd make a mistake or something and you'd win."

The Rays just swept the Angels.

The 38-year-old Percival has also left his share of people filled with wonder. He has allowed just seven base runners in 14 outings and was 7-for-7 in save situations before last Thursday in Toronto, but responded with two saves against his old team this past weekend. Percival isn't the power pitcher he once was, but he has mixed and matched his way past batters.

Anybody can grow.

"I'm more well-rounded," Percival said. "I have more pitches. I used to basically throw my fastball and I'd show a curveball. Now I use any one of four pitches. I'll change arm angles, I'll change my delivery to the plate, anything to make them hit it to somebody ..."

It's the same way with the 35-year-old Floyd. He isn't what he once was, and he breaks down himself now and again, but he still brings something to the table. He started this season with two homers in four games before being shelved for knee surgery. He returned to the lineup Sunday and drove in two runs with two hits as the Rays finished that sweep of the Angels.

"When you come back, you don't want to be left in the dirt," Floyd said.

Percival and Floyd might matter more as this season rolls on or even if it stops rolling. They bring leadership, laughter and perspective. You see them talking with the younger Rays. They listen to them. They listen to their excitement over this start.

"I see it on their faces," Floyd said.

He sees something else, too.

"Consistency and accountability. The good teams have it."

Can't Get Complacent

Now comes the hard part.

"Complacency," Percival said. "We don't want the guys to think we're that good, that we can just go out there and play. We got here because we were hungry."

They seemed hungry Monday.

Another great start from Matt Garza. Timely hitting, aggressive base running, good defense (three double plays) and a little Jonny Gomes rubbed in Yankee wounds. Hey, is it too early to say the Rays are ahead of the Red Sox in the loss column?

"This is a good team," Girardi said.

Ice cream for everybody!

"There's definitely something here," Floyd said.

He'll race you to the park.

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