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Small Ball Pays Off For Rays

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By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 24, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG The Rays will ruin the image of the American League for good if they keep this up.

You know how it is. Come October, AL teams are supposed to be stacked with beasts and knuckle-draggers.

There were the Bash Brothers and Harvey's Wallbangers. There was Reg-gie! Reg-gie! There was David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. That's AL baseball in the World Series.

So goes the image, anyway.

But the Rays showed Thursday night there is another way to get it done. The put on a "small ball" instructional video in Game 2 at the Trop, creating three runs without a ball leaving the infield - two on groundouts - and backing that up with the kind of defense and pitching they've had most of this season.

They were diving all over the place, moving runners along, hitting to the right side, tried a suicide squeeze, drove in a run with a safety squeeze.

"That was fantastic," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "We got it done. When you're not hitting home runs you have to be able to do that. We've not been very good at that game this year, but I was very pleased tonight."

He should be because when you add it up, it computes to a 4-2 victory against the Phillies, and now we've got ourselves a Series. The Rays are even heading to Philadelphia this weekend in what is now a best three-of-five shootout.

There has been so much chatter about the power surge this postseason by B.J. Upton and Evan Longoria, but the Rays didn't even have an extra-base hit in this one. You could tell things were different, though, right from the start.

When Akinori Iwamura walked to open the game and Upton followed with a single that right fielder Jayson Werth misplayed for an error, the Rays were rolling.
Because it was early in the game, the Phillies played the infield back. The Rays accepted the gift with gratitude. Carlos Pena drove Iwamura home from third with a grounder to second. Evan Longoria followed with a grounder to short, scoring Upton.

Toss in the safety squeeze by Jason Bartlett in the fourth that scored Cliff Floyd and what we had here was a game that at time looked straight out of some time capsule. Except for the cowbells, of course.

Playing small is not the only way the Rays can win a game but it's what they did in this one. They used their speed and defense, and then wrapped all of that around outstanding pitching. And they walked away with a comfortable win.

"I can't tell you how happy I was with that. That's how I think. I turned to [bench coach] Davey Martinez and said, 'This is what we have to emphasize next year during spring training, scoring runs with outs,' " Maddon said.

"We want to be able to be that team. Ground ball, ground ball, bunt. That's three points right there. That's beautiful."

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