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Longoria, Rays Make History With Game 1 Win

Tribune photo by CHRIS URSO

Jason Bartlett led off the bottom of the third with a single and came all the way around on keystone mate Akinori Iwamura's triple to center.

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By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 2, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG The upstart Rays handled their first taste of October just as they have every other challenge that has come their way this season.

They made their presence felt immediately Thursday on a mammoth Evan Longoria home run leading off the second inning, then took their opponent's best shot before steadying themselves and pulling out a victory.

Tropicana Field rocked as the Rays downed the White Sox 6-4 in Game 1 of the American League Division Series on the back of a two-homer star turn for Longoria and a fantastic pitching display fronted by starter James Shields.

Game 2 in the best-of-five series is at 6 p.m. Friday, with Scott Kazmir looking to give the Rays a commanding edge as he faces off against fellow left-hander Mark Buehrle.

Longoria got the Rays started Thursday, hammering the first postseason pitch he saw way out to left-center to put struggling White Sox starter Javier Vazquez in a hole. But the Rays' pitching was the common thread throughout the afternoon.

Shields lived up to his nickname, "Big Game", in providing the rock-solid foundation the Rays had hoped he would establish for the series. He calmly set down the first six batters in order before running into trouble in the third – and even then he appeared on the verge of getting out of it before the White Sox did the only damage they could manage against him.

Alexei Ramirez and A.J. Pierzynski – who was vigorously booed by the Tropicana Field crowd at every opportunity – opened the frame with consecutive singles and were sacrificed over by Juan Uribe. Shields got Orlando Cabrera to pop to second base and appeared to have Dewayne Wise on the ropes with a 2-2 count.

But the journeyman Wise, who spent half the season in Triple-A and got the start on a hunch by White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, turned on one and lifted it over the wall in right to cast a stunned silence over the Trop.

The Rays saw to it that Chicago's 3-1 lead was short-lived, however. Jason Bartlett led off the bottom of the third with a single and came all the way around on keystone mate Akinori Iwamura's triple to center. Iwamura scored with a nice slide past Pierzynski on a Willy Aybar sacrifice fly to left, just beating an off-balance, on-target throw from Wise to tie it up at 3-3. Aybar had entered the game in the top of the inning to replace Carlos Pena, who had to leave after experiencing blurred vision in his left eye.

That brought you-know-who to the plate, to a rousing ovation. This time, Longoria took a strike before blasting a 65-mph Vazquez curveball out to left on a hitched swing that would have made a beer-league softball slugger proud. Longoria became the second player in major-league history to homer in his first two postseason at-bats, joining current Rays Triple-A coach Gary Gaetti (1987 with the Twins) and the Rays led 4-3.

There was no looking back from there.

The Rays drove Vazquez from the game in the fifth by stringing together three singles among the first four batters. Longoria was the last of that group, threading a bouncer past shortstop Orlando Cabrera to drive home B.J. Upton and bring Guillen out of the dugout with the hook.

Carl Crawford greeted lefty reliever Clayton Richard with a hard single back up the middle that scored Aybar and made it 6-3 on Crawford's first hit since Aug. 9. Richard quickly recovered, striking out the next two (and all three batters in the sixth) to calm things down for a while.

The proceedings heated back up considerably in the top of the seventh. Shields ran out of gas, loading the bases with one out by walking Ramirez and hitting Pierzynski after Paul Konerko had led off with a single. Rays manager Joe Maddon came to get his starter at that point, bringing on strikeout specialist Grant Balfour.

The Aussie fireballer put away Uribe on a 95-mph delivery, bringing Cabrera to the plate. That's when things got strange, as Cabrera yelled something at Balfour and angrily kicked at the dirt in the batter's box following an outside pitch. Balfour yelled back and got a talking-to from home plate umpire Joe West as Dioner Navarro tried to calm Cabrera.

When Cabrera whiffed on a third strike two pitches later, Balfour was rather demonstrative in his celebration, staring the shortstop down as he walked slowly off the mound. That brought Guillen a few steps out of the dugout, yelling toward the Rays' side, and Tampa Bay bench coach Dave Martinez reciprocated before being restrained by Navarro.

It wasn't immediately clear what prompted the incident, but it was the kind of moment that could linger over the course of a series that could potentially last five games.

From there, the Rays' relievers brought them home. J.P. Howell stepped in for Balfour in the eighth and fanned the first two men he saw before wrapping up a 1-2-3 frame with a routine groundout.

It was Dan Wheeler's turn in the ninth, and the veteran recorded his first postseason save after absorbing a bump in the road in the form of a Konerko home run.

The first baseman hit one out to left on the 11th pitch of an at-bat that saw Konerko lose track of the count and head to first, thinking he had walked, after the 2-2 pitch was called a ball. He sheepishly returned to the plate, fouled off three pitches down the left-field line, then lifted a high fly over the fence.

Wheeler finally retired Pierzynski on a fly to Upton and the Rays had their latest first, a playoff victory.

Reporter Marc Lancaster can be reached at (813) 259-7227 or mlancaster@tampatrib.com.

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