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Series Rolls On As Rays Can't Bury Champs

Tribune photo by CHRIS URSO

Rays pitcher Grant Balfour watches Boston's David Ortiz round the bases after hitting a three-run home run in the seventh inning.

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By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 17, 2008

Updated: 10/17/2008 02:23 am

BOSTON – It was all set up as an emphatic rubber stamp of everything the Rays had done before, a continuation of the otherworldly sway they have held over all comers this season.

Up seven runs with seven outs to go before the celebration and the champagne and the World Series, the Rays weren't just staring down the most significant victory in their history. They were methodically preparing for a coronation.

Then the Red Sox started to do things that could only be described in terms the Rays seemed to have trademarked. Unthinkable, unfathomable…

"We did some unbelievable things," said Boston manager Terry Francona.

When J.D. Drew did the last of them, rocketing a ball over Gabe Gross' head with two out in the bottom of the ninth to score Kevin Youkilis and give the Red Sox an 8-7 win, the use of any superlative in the book became permissible. On both sides.

"It's devastating," said Rays outfielder Carl Crawford.

How devastating? Consider no one has done what the Rays just did in nearly 80 years. The only team to blow a larger lead in a playoff game was the 1929 Chicago Cubs, who fell 10-8 to the Philadelphia Athletics after leading 8-0.

And therein lies the next challenge placed before the Rays. Now that they have been victimized by the second-largest comeback in postseason history, they face the ultimate test of their season-long habit of brushing off even the most gut-wrenching setbacks.

"It's a big test, one of the toughest," said B.J. Upton. "We'll be ready. For a lot of us, the page is already halfway turned as we speak."

If that was indeed the case less than an hour after Drew's long single had Fenway Park shaking to its foundation, the Rays may very well be robots.

No, this one will linger for a while. A more realistic aim will be to ensure it is flushed from their system before James Shields steps to the mound to deliver the first pitch of Game 6 on Saturday night at Tropicana Field.

As the Rays were quick to point out in the early morning hours Friday, they remain in control of the series in the most basic of terms, needing only one win in two games at the Trop this weekend to move on and face the Phillies. But, man, what a way to go home.

"There was not going to be an easy way to lose that game," Gross said.

Their team holding a seemingly insurmountable lead, the most consistently reliable cog in the Rays' machine all season, the vastly improved bullpen, suffered the kind of comprehensive breakdown Tampa Bay hoped it had left behind for good.

Rays relievers had allowed just four runs in the first eight playoff games, but Grant Balfour matched that total in the seventh — three of them coming when he awakened a sleeping giant by serving up David Ortiz's first home run this postseason. The Red Sox completed their astonishing comeback against Dan Wheeler, tying the game with three more in the eighth.

The death blow came in the bottom of the ninth, when Drew arced a J.P. Howell delivery over Gross' head to score Youkilis from second, sparking a joyous celebration for the home team before both squads headed for Florida.

"I've never seen a group so happy to get on a plane at 1:30 in the morning in my life," said Francona.

Youkilis reached base with two outs when Longoria's fine backhanded stab on a bouncer down the line was rendered moot by a wild throw that bounced into the stands. Howell intentionally walked Jason Bay, setting up the lefty-lefty matchup with Drew.

Howell couldn't find the strike zone, firing three straight balls before finally getting a strike. But Drew jumped on his next pitch, arcing it straight at Gross in right. He initially broke in, but the ball cleared him easily and the celebration was on.

"The bullpen's always been strong this year, so that's a little different for us," said Longoria. "I don't put any blame on anybody; we lost this game as a team. Some things just didn't roll [the bullpen's] way today and we weren't able to shut down their big innings and keep the crowd out of it."

Until Balfour relieved Scott Kazmir to start the seventh and saw Jed Lowrie lash a leadoff double for Boston's third hit of the game, the Rays were in complete control. Some fans had actually departed a sedate Fenway Park after another early-inning power display left the defending world champions on the ropes again.

Upton was the catalyst, providing a two-run homer in the top of the first that just cleared the top of the Green Monster. Nine pitches into the game, the Rays already had done something they couldn't against Red Sox starter Daisuke Matsuzaka in Game 1 by putting a runner across the plate.

The Rays added to it in the third with back-to-back bombs by Carlos Pena and Longoria that increased their lead to 5-0. Even at that early stage, there seemed to be no shaking the inevitability of the Rays moving on to the World Series with an unthinkable three consecutive wins at Fenway Park.

"They had their way with us in every way possible," said Francona.

Kazmir was rolling along, holding the Red Sox to two hits — both singles — in six shutout innings. Before he officially departed, the Rays tacked on two more in the top of the seventh on a wall-scraping double by Upton that would have been an out in any other park.

At 7-0, the Red Sox seemed cooked. Even after Lowrie's double, Balfour seemed to have steadied himself by recording a pair of outs to put the Rays on the brink of escape. But a single by Coco Crisp put two men on and Dustin Pedroia drove home Boston's first run, energizing the crowd as Big Papi stepped to the plate. He watched ball one before whirling around, bad wrist and all, to blast a 97-mph fastball out to right on a line.

"His home run took them right off the deck, no question about it," said Rays manager Joe Maddon. "They had a lot of big at-bats, but the one that got them going was Papi's homer."

Wheeler came on to halt the rally, but it was only temporary. His four-pitch walk of Bay to open the eighth certainly qualified as a bad omen, and the Drew homer that followed sent Fenway into hysterics, the stands shaking as Tampa Bay's lead was cut to one.

After a pair of outs, Mark Kotsay revived the festivities with a long double to center and scored to tie it at 7 on a Crisp single that capped a 10-pitch at-bat.

The Rays had a chance to counterpunch in the top of the ninth, putting two men on with one out against Justin Masterson, but he induced an inning-ending double play from Pena and it was over shortly after that.

Over for the night, anyway.

"As much as you want to throw up, freaking go crazy, they're the champs," said Cliff Floyd. "You can't be embarrassed. We've won three games. You can be hurt, you can be frustrated, you can be all those things, but you can't be embarrassed. They're the champs. You've got to knock them out."

Reporter Marc Lancaster can be reached at (813) 259-7227.

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