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Do The Math: Rays Are AL's Best

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 20, 2008

Updated: 10/20/2008 01:12 am

ST. PETERSBURG - 9 = 2.

The story is still being written, and already there's no way to truly tell it.

We'll try this:

The Tampa Bay Rays are going to the World Series.

That noise you heard around midnight was Tropicana Field rocking back and forth. The bloody Red Sox, valiant reigning world champions, have been subdued, 3-1 in an electrifying, unbearably tense seventh game of the American League Championship Series.

Despite their comeback from seven runs down in Game 5, and a win in Game 6, gone Boston is, like the rest of the AL.

The Philadelphia Phillies are next.

So are the '69 Mets.

And the moon and the stars.

First the Devil was banished.

Now the demons have vanished.

The demons from 10 lost, laughingstock seasons.

The demons from that epic Game 5 collapse.

Joe Maddon and The Miracles move on.

Blowing a game seven runs up and seven outs from a World Series would have done in most teams, ended most seasons.

This is not most teams.

This is not most seasons.

As if to prove it, a genuinely fearless 23-year-old named David Price, called into a crucible in just his eighth major-league baseball game, threw a 97-mph strikeout pitch to end a bases-loaded eighth inning. He then struck out two in the ninth before Boston pinch-hitter Jed Lowrie grounded to Akinori Iwamura, who stepped on second for the force and ...

It was Price's first career save. And it was for the pennant.

This is not most teams.

This is not most seasons.

We're in the middle perhaps of the baseball story of your time, our time, any time.

Nothing can stop it.

Behind a heat-seeking 24-year-old unhittable gamer and ALCS Most Valuable Player named Matt Garza, a rookie named Evan Longoria, a survivor named Rocco Baldelli and an off-the-bencher named Willy Aybar and that babe-in-arm Price, these Rays rode into late October.

It was Garza who went seven-plus innings, his eyes narrowing after giving up a home run to Boston's Dustin Pedroia, the second batter of the night. Garza gave up only one hit after that, retiring 15 out of 16 batters at one point, and striking out David Ortiz to end the sixth and Jason Varitek to end the seventh.

It was the Longoria who got the Rays on the scoreboard in the fourth with an RBI double. It was Baldelli, who fought his way back from a mitochondrial disorder to be here, who drove put the Rays ahead to stay with an RBI single in the fifth. It was Aybar, one of the role players, who cracked a solo home run for what seemed liked breathing room.

Only there wasn't any. Sunday's heart-stopper mirrored an entire season, the Red Sox breaking out first, the Rays catching and passing them, then the tense stand-off, down the stretch in September, down the stretch in Games 5 and 6, and down it Sunday night.

But the Rays would not let this season end.

They would not let this wondrous season be consigned to the dungeon of great postseason flops after the Game 5 debacle. To blow a 3-1 ALCS lead would have been like the '69 Miracle Mets blowing a 3-1 World Series lead to the Orioles. Flaming wreckage was no way to end this. No way at all.

They wouldn't let it end. That included the bullpen - four relievers in the eighth alone.

Left-hander J.P. Howell got Ortiz to hit into a fielder's choice in the eighth. Then, with the bases loaded, in came Price, who began the season in A-ball, who didn't throw his first pitch in the majors until Sept. 14.

Price, the future, decided, like his teammates, that the future was now, and caught J.D. Drew looking with 97 miles of Yes, There Is A Tomorrow.

An inning later, the new American League champions climbed on each other.

Somewhere out there was The Great Believer Himself.

Forget Joe the Plumber. Here's to Joe the Manager.

No one can't stop Maddon's Miracle.

The World Series begins Wednesday at Tropicana Field against the National League champion Phillies. Here's an idea: When the Series shifts to Philadelphia for Games 3, 4 and 5, Maddon and his men should cross the Delaware by boat.

They've made that much of a revolution.

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