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Rays Use Familiar Formula In First Playoff Win

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By MARC LANCASTER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 3, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - Joe Maddon had so much to do before Thursday's Division Series opener that he wasn't able to get a feel for how his players were handling the buildup.

So he asked everyone who had been around his players for their impressions. The Rays' radio broadcasters told him they thought everything was fine. Bench coach Dave Martinez said the same thing after observing batting practice, and pitching coach Jim Hickey concurred when it came to his charges.

With a consensus opinion emerging, Maddon poked around a bit himself.

"I walked in the breakfast room, it was the same," he said. "Food was the same."

And once the pregame festivities finally gave way to the game the franchise had waited its entire existence to play, the result was pretty much the same.

Just as their manager had hoped they would, the Rays followed the same formula that put them in the playoffs for the first time in defeating the White Sox 6-4 before a frenzied Tropicana Field crowd.

Who else but Evan Longoria would steal the spotlight, this time by cranking home runs on his first two October swings? Who else but James Shields would provide the steady hand to keep a power-packed Chicago lineup at bay? Who else but the most improved bullpen in baseball would ensure those two players' work wouldn't go to waste?

"That's just kind of the way we've done it all year," said Dan Wheeler, who got the final three outs for the save. "We never let a game get too big."

The Rays managed to maintain that businesslike attitude throughout a 97-win season, but it was fair to question whether things might change a bit Thursday. Certainly, adrenaline was running high as both teams stood along the first- and third-base lines and watched a football field-sized American flag unfurl before them for the national anthem.

But everything was back to normal for the Rays once Shields mowed down the first six Chicago batters and Longoria mashed the first pitch he saw, a 91-mph Javier Vazquez fastball, 421 feet to left-center to get the party started.

Shields promptly gave up the lead on a two-out, three-run homer by Dewayne Wise - about the only guy in the White Sox lineup you don't expect to beat you with the long ball. The Rays weren't fazed.

Jason Bartlett led off the bottom of the third inning with a single and scored on Akinori Iwamura's triple to center. The Rays then tied it up when Iwamura scored on a sacrifice fly by Willy Aybar - who had just come in to replace the injured Carlos Pena - before you-know-who stepped back to the plate.

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, as the Rays ran Vazquez from the game with two more runs in the fifth on RBI singles by Longoria and Carl Crawford.

"When I gave up the lead and our guys came back right away, all I wanted to do was just hold them after that," said Shields. "We responded really well."

Some work still remained for the Rays, as Shields loaded the bases on a walk and a hit batter in the seventh to bring an end to his evening.

Grant Balfour came on to strike out Juan Uribe and Orlando Cabrera with mid-90s heat, getting into a shouting match with Cabrera along the way. The Chicago shortstop took exception to Balfour's exhortations on the mound and told him so, prompting the Aussie to fire right back with his mouth and his fastball.

The confrontation, while not exactly along the lines of the Rays' brawls against the Red Sox and the Yankees, nonetheless jacked up the intensity a few more notches as J.P. Howell and Wheeler put the game away.

By sticking to their pattern, the Rays are two wins away from moving on in the playoffs entering tonight's showdown at Tropicana Field.

"Well, we have to win tonight, you know what I mean?" said White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. "It's not a do-or-die thing, but I'd rather go home with one win than go against the wall. But this ballclub was against the wall a lot of times and we pulled it out."

The same could be said about the Rays, who now officially are back in the front-running position they held most of the regular season.

"It feels good winning the first one, especially in a five-game series, and we're feeling pretty good about ourselves," said Dioner Navarro. "But we know they can come back any time and we've got to keep doing what we've been doing to win games."

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

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