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Putting Pedal To The Metal

The Associated Press

Willy Aybar and Jason Bartlett, right, celebrate the team's 10-4 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

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By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 1, 2008

Updated: 09/01/2008 12:35 am

ST. PETERSBURG - For all the heavy hitting the Rays did during the weekend to accumulate a club-record offensive output against the Orioles, a couple of grounders to the right side Sunday gave Joe Maddon the best indication of where his team stands.

Carlos Pena had the first in the first inning, chopping one into short-right field with Baltimore in an exaggerated defensive shift that allowed second baseman Brian Roberts to field the ball but not throw out the hustling first baseman, who beat pitcher Brian Burres to the bag.

That two-out play opened the door for the Rays to score their first runs in what would become a 10-4 blowout, but the other play that caught Maddon's attention came after the Orioles' hopes already had been put to rest.

The Rays led 9-1 with two out in the seventh when Akinori Iwamura grounded hard to Kevin Millar at first base with Shawn Riggans on third. Millar mishandled the ball and couldn't recover in time to outrun Iwamura, allowing Riggans to tack on yet another run.

Tampa Bay certainly has proven itself capable of pulling out close games all season long, but the ability to drop the hammer on an opponent that already is essentially beaten has eluded the Rays at times. Often, a lack of explosiveness in their offense has kept them from putting games like Sunday's away, but suddenly, scoring runs isn't an issue and the Rays are riding higher than ever.

"I liked the idea that we kept adding on, kept adding on," said Maddon. "These guys are still running hard with the big lead late in the game and we're beating out plays and it speaks to all of that. We have to play with the pedal to the metal, we have to be able to do that. We can't take anything for granted, because the moment you do that, everything blows up.

"I just like the way we're going about the day, that's what I'm most pleased about. If you take care of the seconds, the minutes and the hours take care of themselves, and we're taking care of the seconds right now."

The effort turned in by Pena and Iwamura on those plays qualified, and the Rays didn't have much else to complain about Sunday as they moved to 24-6 in home games against AL East opposition.

Their 84th victory of the season, coupled with a Red Sox loss, lifted the Rays to a 51/2-game lead in the division, and a Cubs loss Sunday gave Tampa Bay the best record in baseball. There are 27 regular-season games to play and the Rays' confidence level may be at an all-time high.

"We're rolling right now," said James Shields, who allowed one run in seven innings to secure his 12th win. "Our hitters are really doing really well right now and we're pitching just as good as we've been pitching and that correlates to three good wins. It's good to see going into September and hopefully we keep it going."

Games like Sunday's only seem to provide more fuel for the Rays. They manhandled Burres out of the gate with five runs in the first three innings, which is nothing new for the lefty. The Orioles have now lost their last 10 games against the Rays in which Burres has pitched - four starts and six relief appearances.

Willy Aybar drove home the first two with a single, capitalizing on Pena's sprint and a Rocco Baldelli double. In all, seven of the Rays' nine starters drove in at least one run, and they didn't even need the longball to do most of the damage.

In fact, the only home run came from the unlikeliest of sources, Jason Bartlett, whose seventh-inning shot off Jamie Walker was his first homer since Aug. 27, 2007. Beyond that historic drive, Bartlett reached base each time he came to plate in the game, as did Baldelli.

"We're swinging well right now, that's the thing," said Bartlett. "It's not going to happen every day, but luckily our pitching has kept us in a lot of ballgames. If we could get them both going this last month and on into the playoffs, it's going to be a fun year."

Not that the Rays needed hits to get it done; for the third consecutive game, they scored by drawing a bases-loaded walk. Two of them, actually, by Pena and Baldelli in the sixth after they had opened the scoring by forcing in a run when B.J. Upton was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

A little of this, a little of that and the Rays, on Sept. 1, have the second-largest lead of any first-place team.

Reporter Marc Lancaster can be reached at (813) 259-7227 or mlancaster@tampatrib.com.

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