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Stage Is Set For Shields
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Published: October 10, 2008
ST. PETERSBURG - There is no argument about who should get the ball for the Rays tonight for the opening game of the American League Championship Series. The lights are the brightest, the pressure is at its peak, and this stage was made for James Shields.
He is known as "Big Game" James around Tropicana Field. He has that quality you look for in moments like these. Just look at his face.
"I know it, you know it, the fans know it, the other team knows it - you see it in their eyes. If you see scared eyes, you know he doesn't want it," teammate Trever Miller said.
"He wants the ball in the big games. Some guys are afraid of the big moments - I like to call them the rocking-chair moments - but he loves it. He wants to be able to sit down when he's a grandfather and tell all the grandkids how he pitched Game 1 and won, or Game 7 - beat the best team that year."
Well, the Boston Red Sox might not be the best team - they finished behind the Rays, after all - but they are defending world champions, and you need someone to face them who won't get swallowed by the moment.
Shields was the Opening Day starter for the Rays. He was there to stop a seven-game losing streak on the first start after the All-Star break, arguably one of the Rays' most important wins of the season. When the Rays played their first playoff game last week against Chicago, Shields was the choice to start.
"Focus," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "He's just got tremendous focus."
He came by it naturally. His older brothers made him earn his way in their backyard games, and you know how fierce those deals can be.
"I was always the one getting tossed out of the home-run derby games," Shields said. "I was too little for this, too little for that. They called me the runt of the family. I've always fought my way back into it."
He lasted at least seven innings in 17 of his 33 starts. Since the All-Star break, when the Rays were in the furnace of a playoff race, Shields threw at least 61/3 innings in 12 of 13 starts (not counting a one-inning tune-up in the regular-season finale at Detroit).
"It just seems like when the moment gets bigger, he calms down and focuses on what he's doing," Rays outfielder Gabe Gross said.
The moment is awfully big now, and the need for focus is great. It's exactly the kind of moment where "Big Game" James is at his best.
"He's a competitor, man," Boston's Dustin Pedroia said, and that might have summed it up best of all. He focuses, he competes, he fights, he wins. What else would you want for a game like this?
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