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World Series Next Stop On Magic Ride?

Tribune photo by CHRIS URSO

Rays Balfour and Navarro get the first chance to share the teams Monday night victory as the remainder of the Rays team makes their way to the celebration.

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By JOEY JOHNSTON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 6, 2008

The Rays are four victories away from the World Series.

The American League Championship Series begins Friday.

(Pause).

Wow, you've just got to give your fingers a break after typing two sentences like that.

This isn't fantasy. This is reality.

One season after winning just 66 games, one season after finishing last for the ninth time in 10 years, the Rays took another step toward becoming one of the best stories in sports.

Ever.

The resilient Rays put the hammer down quickly on Monday night – courtesy of B.J. Upton's two solo home runs – eliminating the Chicago White Sox 6-2 in Game 4 of the AL Division Series with a performance that was both artistic and fundamentally sound. Maybe the White Sox, playing their fifth elimination game in the past eight days, simply ran out of gas. Or maybe they just couldn't keep up with the Rays.

Oh, there was plenty of noise about the Rays feeling pressure after losing their first postseason game. But that's all it was – noise.

More likely, it was the Rays who applied the pressure.

Rays right-hander Andy Sonnanstine, the fourth starter, was on his game after a 10-day layoff. He allowed just three hits in 5 2/3 innings (two of them were homers), while walking one and striking out four. In his peak moments, Sonnanstine retired 15 of 17 batters, then Jermaine Dye smacked a two-out homer in the sixth, sending Manager Joe Maddon to the bullpen.

Sonnanstine had done his job. And here's another statistic worth noting – Sonnanstine is now 8-3 following a Rays' defeat.

He got the support he needed from the scorching-hot Upton, who homered in the first and third innings off White Sox starter Gavin Floyd (an old adversary from Upton's high-school days).

Cliff Floyd poked an RBI double off Floyd – on a 3-and-2 pitch – that scored the off-and-running Carl Crawford from first base in the fourth. Orlando Cabrera's throw to the plate was off-line, allowing Floyd to reach third, where he scored on Dioner Navarro's single through a drawn-in infield.

Carlos Pena added a pair of RBI singles.

With Sonnanstine – and that irrepressible Tampa Bay bullpen combination of J.P. Howell and Grant Balfour – it was over.

Open and shut.

Now it's on the next round, back to Tropicana Field.

Here's a thought.

The Rays can become world champions – world champions! – by simply holding serve at home, where they were 57-24 this season, best in the majors.

But if it ever approaches that point, the Rays should think back to a cool night at U.S. Cellular Field, when the world was waiting for them to flop, to feel any pressure. It didn't happen.

Instead, the Rays played one of their most complete games this season. And they got to celebrate once again before moving to the next step in this magic ride.

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