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Rays Get Early Taste Of Fall, Outlast Red Sox

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By MARC LANCASTER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 11, 2008

BOSTON - Almost stammering with excitement, the remnants of a celebratory shaving cream pie still clinging to his shirt and his ears, Jason Hammel summed up what transpired the past three evenings at Fenway Park rather succinctly.

"If that's what playoff baseball's all about," said Hammel, "it's going to be fun."

Not to mention exhausting. For the second straight evening, the Rays and Red Sox pushed the dramatic envelope about as far as it will go in mid-September and Tampa Bay came out on top in breathtaking fashion. Carlos Pena's three-run homer in the top of the 14th inning finally put the Rays on top and Hammel's impromptu work as the emergency closer in the bottom half after Troy Percival went down again sealed a 4-2 Tampa Bay victory.

The win boosted the Rays' division lead to 2 1/2 games as they jetted to New York early this morning, but the statement it made in conjunction with a similarly pulsating victory Tuesday night may have a bigger impact.

Winless in seven games at Fenway Park entering Tuesday, the Rays ended up capturing their first series in Boston since 1999. If these teams end up meeting again here in October, no one will be able to question Tampa Bay's ability to get the job done.

"Obviously when you come here and you beat them two out of three here, at least now we know we can win here and they know that we can win here," said Rays manager Joe Maddon. "That's important."

Equally crucial was the Rays' ability to pull out two last-gasp victories even though their situational hitting has been about as bad as it can possibly be. Tampa Bay finished the series a remarkable 2-for-37 with runners in scoring position, but the two hits were massive. Dioner Navarro's double that drove in the winning run Tuesday was the first, and Pena's drive off Mike Timlin on Wednesday was the second.

The winning rally materialized out of nothing – two outs, bases empty in the 14th. But Akinori Iwamura kept the Rays alive with a solid single to center and Rocco Baldelli followed with one of his own to left. Red Sox manager Terry Francona said he didn't want to see Pena at the plate in that inning because he knows what the slugger can do, and it only took two pitches for him to do it.

After taking ball one from Timlin, Pena went with an outside pitch and launched it over the top of the Green Monster to send the Rays' dugout into hysterics.

"I was just trying to see the ball there, trying not to get too hyped up about the situation," said Pena, "and look what happens."

Naturally, the game was far from over at that point despite a 4-1 Rays lead in a game that had just witnessed a 10-inning scoring drought by both teams. No one who has watched the Rays regularly needs to be told that Percival's final innings are rarely boring, and this one reached new heights.

The closer, in his fourth appearance since coming off the disabled list Sept. 1, allowed a leadoff double to Jacoby Ellsbury, but consecutive walks to Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz demonstrated to everyone in the park that something was wrong.

Afterward, Percival explained that his back had locked up on him as he warmed up for the third or fourth time in the 5 hour, 2 minute marathon.

"Come that 14th inning when I got up, I probably could have told my manager," Percival admitted. "But I thought, you know what, three-run lead, I'll go out there and pound the strike zone and see what happens. But I had a hard time pounding the strike zone – I couldn't get it in there."

After a four-pitch walk to Ortiz, Maddon popped out of the dugout along with assistant trainer Paul Harker and shouted down Percival's pleas to remain in the game. Hammel and Juan Salas had been throwing since the inning began, apparently to get in some work since they hadn't seen action in about a week.

Not that Hammel had forgotten his last outing, a week ago today against the Yankees. Summoned for mop-up duty with a 7-1 lead heading into the ninth, he had to be pulled after surrendering five runs. With that in mind, his confidence couldn't have been high as he came on with the bases loaded and nobody out, but you wouldn't have known it.

Hammel went right after each hitter, getting Kevin Youkilis to fly to right and trading a run for an out. The big at-bat was the next one, especially considering recent history. Jason Bay already had hit a walk-off homer off Hammel this year, a solo shot in the 13th inning June 28 in Pittsburgh. But Hammel managed to strike him out this time before retiring Alex Cora on a fly to shallow center to end it.

"You've got to give Jason Hammel a lot of credit," said Maddon. "My God, coming in with the bases loaded, that part of the batting order, to do what he did after what had happened in the recent past, that's truly a tremendous performance."

Hammel termed his first career save "without a doubt" the highlight of his career to date, and Percival labeled it "awesome."

It was the culmination of an evening that featured fantastic pitching on both sides, from starters Andy Sonnanstine and Josh Beckett on through the bulk of each team's bullpen.

While it remains to be seen what Percival's status will be – healthy or not – the Rays have to feel like they can handle just about any adversity thrown in their path by this point. Back to 30 games over .500 at 87-57, they'll enjoy a much-needed day off today before their final three games at Yankee Stadium.

But anyone who was paying attention the last few days probably understands what those who have watched the Rays closely this year already knew. They can play with anyone, and even though opinions in the clubhouse were mixed on whether this series could be considered a statement, the job isn't finished yet.

"Any one of these three games could have gone in any direction – they know it, we know it," said Percival. "We're not going to go out there and get too high on winning this series. We won this series, and now we've got to go to New York and play well there."

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

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