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'You Can't Be Perfect Every Night'

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By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 3, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - For years we wondered what "meaningful" baseball in September for the Rays would feel like. We had seen it before on television, of course, in all those other cities. It looked exciting, sure, but how could we tell for sure without experiencing the real thing?

It would be nice to report this morning that there was riveting, taut baseball played on the first Tuesday night of September at the Trop.

Alas, it just wasn't so.

The Yankees came in and pretty well dusted the Rays, 7-2. It got a little interesting in the seventh when the Rays finally got something going, but it didn't last long. And when Alex Rodriguez homered in the eighth for New York, well, couldn't you just hear them muttering all the way from the South Bronx - "Sure, now you do it when it doesn't matter, Mr. Clutch."

Yeah, it was that kind of game. Not exactly what people have been waiting for after a decade of serving as shark chum for the Red Sox and Yankees.

"They took advantage of everything tonight," Rays Manager Joe Maddon said. "We did not execute the way we have."

A lot of things seemed off-kilter for such an august occasion as this. Fans didn't exactly storm the gates to get their first taste of "meaningful" ball - 21,629 showed up, just a couple hundred more than the Rays average in months not named September.

They kept pretty quiet, too, probably bored to sleep by the assortment of 70- and 80-mph darters offered by Yankees starter Mike Mussina - boring, but hideously effective.

"He's really good at picking corners," Maddon said. "A liberal strike zone really helped him tonight a lot. It was really wide, kind of amorphic."

Amorphic: Defined as having no particular shape or form. You can look it up.

Things Get Magnified

Throw in a base-running blunder by Eric Hinske that cost the Rays a run and a chance to take the early lead, and combine that with a poor outing by Matt Garza. Then take a peek at the scoreboard, which offered conclusive evidence that Boston was winning to close the gap between the Sox and Rays to 4 games in the AL East.

Bad night, folks.

Bad night.

Things get magnified this time of year, of course. One loss like this can seem like a 10-game slide by the time SportsCenter gets done with it. Everything gets analyzed. Outcomes you wouldn't notice in June carry large implications in those "meaningful" September games.

They've probably perked up a little in Boston this morning. The Yankees probably think they still have a chance to get back in the race. You can bet Minnesota and Chicago paid attention, too.

"I know they've hit some tough moments, but they are the Yankees," Maddon said.

Games against the Yankees always attract extra attention. September games when the Yankees are fighting to stay alive and the Rays are fighting to complete perhaps the greatest turnaround in baseball history become even bigger than they normally would.

The Rays really haven't gotten caught up in any of this throughout their magical run, which is exactly what Maddon preaches. Focus on the game of the day, and turn the page when that game is over.

That will never be more important than now because if fans around here haven't experienced "meaningful" September games, that's only because the Rays never have either.

Crucial Stretch Begins

On Tuesday, the Rays began a stretch in which 16 of the 19 games they play come against contenders. There are five more against the Yankees, six against Boston, and four against Minnesota. The season hinges on the outcome of that stretch.

Can't look at it that way, though. They can't predict the future and can't change the past, so they take this one for what it was - a loss in Game No. 136 of the season.

There is another game tonight, and Thursday, and many more nights this month. Turns out September has a lot of days, a lot of games, and just about every one of them will be "meaningful."

That's why Maddon could look at this game and say the only thing he could.

"You can't be perfect every night," he said. "We'll just move on to tomorrow."

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