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Who Would You Rather Be Tonight?

Tribune photo by MICHAEL SPOONEYBARGER

Gabe Gross can't catch a ball hit by J.D. Drew in the fifth inning in the ALCS Game 6.

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By MARTIN FENNELLY

mfennelly@tampatrib.com

Published: October 19, 2008

Updated: 10/19/2008 01:11 am

ST. PETERSBURG - They're tied, but don't seem tied.

The scoreboard at the Trop said the Rays lost Game 6, lost again to the Red Sox, 4-2.

The series scoreboard says the Rays and Sox each have three wins in this ALCS.

Another scoreboard says no such thing.

The real scoreboard says the Rays lost Game 6, and maybe this series, Thursday night in Boston.

The real scoreboard says the dream season is in oxygen debt.

Who would you rather be right now?

Tonight is Game 7, the Game 7 that should never have been.

Tonight is Game 7, a Rays home game in the home where they won again and again this season.

Then why do they seem like the only ones with their backs against the wall?

The reigning World Series champion Red Sox don't like being eliminated, not one bit.

Now it's the Rays' turn to face it, for the first time in their history.

Don't you feel like watching tonight with your eyes half closed?

Tonight, either baseball's greatest story goes or it's the end of the line for The Little Train That Could. It's a win that would define this franchise or Joe Maddon and The Miracles join a sorry pantheon. They spend the winter thinking about being seven runs up and seven outs away from the AL pennant the other night in Boston. That's their Bartman.

From Seventh Heaven to Game 7.

Never count Maddon's guys out.

Who would you rather be right now?

Rays Just Looked Flat

Rays fans can only hope Matt Garza slept the sleep of angels.

It will be up to him, for starters.

Rays ace James Shields couldn't get it done.

Neither could Rays bats or gloves.

Four hits?

None from Carlos Pena or Evan Longoria.

No key hits from key men.

No big start from the starting pitcher.

No defensive gems.

Instead, a costly error.

The Rays did none of the things that got them here.

There was Dioner Navarro, out by a mile at second on a blown hit-and-run.

None of the things ...

The Rays played like a team that might have blown the pennant two nights ago.

Incredibly, they looked flat - flat.

For a flickering moment, you thought they might push on through.

That man Coco Crisp bunted for a hit to lead off the game. He was promptly picked off first by Shields. A few minutes later, B.J. Upton hit yet another tracer, this one off the C ring, and it was 1-0 after one inning.

Inexorably, this became a Boston night. It began with Kevin Youkilis' second-inning homer. Trop uneasiness was palpable from then on.

It was the Sox, not the Rays, who produced a star from nowhere, though we know the face. Battered Boston captain and catcher Jason Varitek, batting .105 in the postseason, in an 0-for-15 slump, hit a 2-0 Shields pitch for a 3-2 Red Sox lead in the sixth. Shields had struggled all night, but saw some daylight when he got two quick outs in that sixth. Enter Varitek.

Rays stars couldn't stay stars, not even for an inning. Jason Bartlett seemed the big man when he tied it at 2 with a homer down the left-field line off eventual winner Josh Beckett in the fifth, after hitting one homer all season.

Surely this was Rays magic on the march.

Shields couldn't hold the lead. And soon after Varitek's homer, it was Bartlett - a true difference-maker on defense - who threw high and wide of Pena at first to keep the Red Sox inning alive. David Ortiz singled in insurance for a 4-2 lead. After that, we think he started looking in the Rays' eyes again.

So they head to Game 7.

The Game 7 that wasn't supposed to be.

Series Doesn't Seem Like It's Tied

There are a handful of Boston players, including Ortiz and Varitek, who came from three games down to beat the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS. There are a ton of Sox who came from 3-1 down to beat the Indians just last season. ALCS elimination games are basically wheelhouse. Boston's best starter, Jon Lester, goes tonight. Yes, he was shelled by the Rays in Game 3 at Fenway Park.

Who would you rather be right now?

This ALCS is tied.

And it feels nothing like that at all.

And to think, they took the tarps off at the Trop for this one. A crowd of 40,947 appeared.

Rays fans receded, deathly quiet, after Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon got the final out.

They might just draw that tarp over this season tonight.

It's hard to believe all of this could end in 27 outs.

Late Saturday, on the eve of Game 7, Joe Maddon was again asked about Game 5.

"That happened a couple of days ago," he said. "That has nothing to do with tomorrow. It's all about how we react to the moment."

Never count these guys out.

But for the moment, who would you rather be?

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