TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Game 5 Woes Aside, Rays Still In Control Of Series

ADVERTISEMENT

By JOE HENDERSON

jhenderson@tampatrib.com

Published: October 18, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - If there is any solace to be gained from the Meltdown at Fenway ... well, OK, there isn't much. You can say the Rays blew the game, or you can say the Red Sox took it from them. However you want to spin it, losing a seven-run lead in the late innings when they could have clinched the pennant ... not good.

But if we know one thing about the Rays, and by now we should, what happened in Boston two nights ago won't be on their minds when they gather at Tropicana Field for the sixth game of the American League Championship Series. There are several reasons to like the Rays' chances tonight.

They've got the right guy on the mound, for starters. If there's anyone you'd want to hand the ball to on a night like this, it's James Shields. We know how he will battle. We know the success he has at the Trop. Boston managed only two runs off him in Game 1 last week (although the Red Sox won because Daisuke Matsuzaka allowed, well, none).

Shields won't melt in this cauldron tonight.

"We're going to move on," Shields said. "We're feeling pretty confident, and we're still up 3-2 and we're going to go from there, so I'm ready to go tonight."

Anyone can say they're confident, but Shields really is.

You can see it in his relaxed demeanor in the clubhouse. And you know what you'll get when he goes to the mound.

But then, they're always like this.

Leave It All Behind

There have been many times throughout this season when we figured this young team would be devastated by the natural occurrences of a baseball season. But it never was. Maybe that has much to do with Maddon's oft-stated demand that his players leave games in the past. Once they're done, it does no use to dwell on what might have been.

He's an interesting cat, as we know. He doesn't run from the obvious - that loss, uh, stunk - but he doesn't pile on it, either. And he expects that by the time his players leave the clubhouse, they will have left it behind.

That's not so easy to do, of course, in the age of 24/7 sports news. You can't turn on the TV without a flashback to What Might Have Been, but unless you want to live the hermit's life you'd better be able to deal with that. These Rays have been.

"For me, it's kind of amazing that people don't understand that all you have to do in a situation like this is stay together and do what you've been doing all year," Maddon said. "It's not really complicated."

Maddon sat in his office at the Trop on Friday and he didn't look any different than he ever has. OK, he was a little tired - he didn't get to bed until 7 a.m. - but if confidence springs from the leader, then these Rays should be in good shape tonight. I asked him if there was any move he had made in Game 5 that he'd second-guess on the morning after.

"No," he said simply. "I kind of had it all mapped out mentally anyway from jump street, but it just didn't work. It worked a lot for us this season, but it didn't work in this game. I give more credit to the other side."

Well, David Ortiz gets credit for his three-run homer off Grant Balfour that got Boston back into the game. Any thought that, maybe, you should have gone to a lefty in the bullpen to face Ortiz instead of the righty Balfour?

"That was the first homer Balfour has given up all year to a lefty," Maddon said, punctuated with a nod as if to say, "next question."

Still In Control

The X factor in all this, of course, is Boston.

The Red Sox are the champs, and the Rays have given them life. Calm and confidence won't mean much if the Sox come out swinging like they can.

But the Rays have beaten Boston nine times in 11 games this season at the Trop, counting the playoffs. They have their best pitcher going against a suddenly shaky Josh Beckett - although, let's be fair, people said the same shaky things about Scott Kazmir before he turned in a gem in Game 5.

Yeah, that was a bad turn of events up in Boston, but the Rays still control this series. If they really can turn the page as well as they always have, champagne corks could still fly tonight. If not ... well, no one around here really wants to think about that just now, do they?

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT