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Instant Replay: Yanks Drub Rays Again

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 4, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - We've got your instant replay right here.

Try another bad loss to the Yankees.

Gulp.

This time it was 8-4.

Gulp.

Did you think this would be easy?

The Rays September Song is two games old. It's karaoke time and so far they're lip-syncing the '07 Mets.

Hey, wasn't it 19 minutes ago that they were the kings of August?

In three short days, with Dustin Pedroia starring as Roy Hobbs, the Red Sox have chopped 2 1/2 games off Tampa Bay's AL East lead. The Sox came from 4-0 down to beat the Orioles on Wednesday.

Gulp.

The lead is three.

In two long nights at Tropicana Field, the Yankees have pulled a Night of the Living Dead. And the Rays have turned human, sloppy human.

They can't even get their history right.

Yes, history it was on Wednesday - the very first use of the replay rule at a major-league baseball game.

Write 'em down:

- Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic.

- Armstrong walking on the moon.

- Charlie Reliford staring at a TV screen.

Another Trop Moment

The great moment came in the top of the ninth inning after that man Alex Rodriguez hit a two-run homer off just-back Troy Percival.

The ball apparently traveled over the foul pole in left for the A-Rod's 549th career homer, passing Mike Schmidt.

The Rays, including manager Joe Maddon, lobbied that A-Rod might have run afoul.

I wonder if they lost a timeout.

So Rodriguez becomes a trivia answer for the first time, unless you count Madonna's called shot.

Back to A-Rod.

"There are probably 800 players in the big leagues," he said. "The odds of me being involved in something controversial are 2-to-1. I don't know how I always get myself in these situations."

Oh, that nutty A-Rod.

By the way, the odds of the Trop being involved are 1-to-1.

Umpiring crew chief Reliford went inside the TV room with two fellow umps to watch TV. A security man blocked the door to keep everyone else out. It was a nice touch. If only commissioner Bud Selig had thought of a security guy in front of the steroids cabinet in the '90s.

It took 2 minutes, 15 seconds, the longest two minutes of Mike Schmidt's life, we presume.

It was a tougher night for the Rays.

Did you see Carlos Pena throw his helmet and Willy Aybar break his bat after the game's key play, which happened to be a rally-killing double play in the fifth?

Did you see catcher Dioner Navarro lose it over A-Rod's homer, or Percival fume after he didn't get a strike call that would have struck out A-Rod the pitch before he went deep?

Deep, deep breathing, everyone.

"We're cool," Pena said. "Two losses is just two losses."

We now return you to your regularly scheduled little-known pennant-race commandment:

Thou shalt not lose to Carl Pavano.

Actually, the previously long-lost Pavano didn't qualify for New York's win.

Edwar Ramirez got the W.

Yeah, that feels better.

So the lead is three.

And nothing feels safe anymore.

Did you think this would be easy?

Not with a nine-game road trip looming, including next week's trip into the belly of the beast, three games at Fenway Park, where the Rays are nil-6 this season. Fenway is where they have to win, for statement's sake alone.

Understand, kiddies, Joe Maddon's miracle men have crossed the Rubicon.

This is either going to be one of baseball's greatest stories ever told, a worst-to-firster for the ages, or it is going to be a crushing end to fantasy baseball.

It would take a lot for the Rays to lose out entirely - missing the wild-card would take a true collapse - but at this point, the AL East is right there for the taking, at least it seemed that way as late as Sunday night, when the lead was 5 1/2 games.

Anything less than that would be deflating.

Because the wild-card gets you on a plane for the long flight to Anaheim and two games with the Angels to start a best-of-five division series.

That shouldn't be an option for the Rays.

That can't be an option for them.

They've come too far.

Make It Tonight

Wednesday, New York hits seemed to fall everywhere but in Rays' hands. The Rays made some of those plays in their torrid August.

They fell behind 6-1. Edwin Jackson, who came in having won six of his last seven decisions, took the loss. Bad luck alone can't excuse Jackson's 3 1/2 innings of work the night after Matt Garza shorted out over balls and strikes calls.

The Rays closed to within 6-3, but in the pivotal moment, came away with nothing with the bases loaded and nobody out in the fifth, as Pena was being doubled off second on Aybar's liner to second.

The Rays had one hit the rest of the game.

Did you think this would be easy?

The Rays are officially in the Red Sox wheelhouse.

I think they need to be more than three games up when they hit Fenway for those three games. Think the Sox aren't watching and waiting?

Wednesday marked only the third time since the All-Star break that the Rays have lost consecutive games. They hadn't lost consecutive games on a homestand since April. They hadn't lost a series since the break.

Now they've lost two games and one series.

And they need a win tonight.

Scott Kazmir will take the mound.

Want to be an ace, Kaz?

Win tonight.

Want more people in the seats, Kaz?

Spin one tonight.

No more replays.

It's September, and every loss is a dagger.

It's all new to this team.

Don't start collecting wood for a coffin just yet.

"We've proven what we are," Percival said. "I saw us lose seven in a row going into the break and then come back and start tearing it up."

"It's just two games," Yankees outfielder Johnny Damon said. "Sure, they're young, but they're very aggressive and very dangerous. I don't think this is going to throw them out of whack. They've come this far."

Maddon's miracle workers have responded all season.

But September is a season all by itself.

Did you think this would be easy?

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