TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Rays: 'It's Just Another Game'

ADVERTISEMENT

By MARC LANCASTER

mlancaster@tampatrib.com

Published: October 16, 2008

Updated: 10/16/2008 12:11 am

BOSTON - Wary of acknowledging the gravity of the situation, the Rays are getting creative to keep themselves from dwelling on the fact that they're one win away from the World Series.

So rather than thinking of tonight as Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, with the Rays holding a 3-1 lead on the Red Sox, Tampa Bay reliever J.P. Howell views it as the ninth game added onto the 162 they played during the regular season.

"We have to avoid looking at that and keep going with just 171," Howell said. "I say it out loud because that's the best way we can be. ... If we're looking at one more game to clinch, that ain't going to be good."

Doing their best to ignore the elephant in the room seems to be the agreed-upon strategy for the Rays. Trite as it is, keeping their heads down and treating each day's game as an independent event has worked for them all season.

"We're playing really well right now, so there's no reason to start changing our mind-set now and start thinking about lofty goals like going to the World Series," Rocco Baldelli said. "We have a game to play tonight and I'm sure that's what every guy in this clubhouse is worried about."

Their knowledge of recent baseball history undoubtedly plays into that approach. As Baldelli noted the other day, the Rays have had nothing to do in past Octobers but watch other teams play. If they have been paying attention, they've noticed that the Red Sox rallied from a 3-0 ALCS hole in 2004 to storm past the Yankees and into the World Series, and came back from the same 3-1 deficit they face now to top the Indians last year.

Between that postseason pedigree and the knowledge that comes from playing the Red Sox nearly 20 times each regular season, the Rays are aware they have won nothing yet.

"I think our minds are as focused as any right now, knowing this Red Sox team is just a couple hits away, especially in this place, from firing themselves back up," Evan Longoria said. "We've really got to keep it on them."

The Rays certainly don't expect to have their way with Boston like they did the previous two games - "We're going to be ready to be in a tight situation," Howell said - but they like their chances if they can just keep driving ahead.

"It's kind of like we don't even realize the situation that we're in right now," said tonight's starter, Scott Kazmir. "We're just out there having fun and just playing our game."

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT