TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Room To Breathe: Rays Rock Sox

ADVERTISEMENT

By MARC LANCASTER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 18, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - First place is theirs and theirs alone, and a playoff spot could be in hand before the weekend.

These are heady times for the Rays, who completed an emphatic response to a series-opening smackdown at the hands of the Red Sox by doing some bashing of their own in a 10-3 rout Wednesday night.

The Rays' 90th victory nudged their division lead to two games, and an accompanying loss by Minnesota at Cleveland reduced Tampa Bay's magic number to clinch a postseason berth to three. With the Twins arriving in town tonight, the Rays would need only two wins from the four-game set to lock up their first trip to the playoffs.

"It'd be huge ... as long as we can celebrate it at home," said former Twin Matt Garza. "I think these fans deserve it as much as we do. They've seen a rough 10 years. We're going to see what we can do. We've got four games and we're going to take tonight and play it by ear after that."

Though the division is far from salted away with 12 games remaining, winning Wednesday essentially added an extra game to the Rays' lead against the Red Sox. By capturing the season series 10-8, Tampa Bay owns the tiebreaker for the division title should the teams finish tied atop the AL East.

Rays manager Joe Maddon noted the importance of that achievement following the game, but he was just as impressed by the way his team responded to a 2-0 first-inning deficit - courtesy of David Ortiz's first of two homers - by blowing a pitcher who has owned them for years out of the water.

The mere sight of Tim Wakefield's name on the list of probable pitchers at Tropicana Field used to be enough to send Tampa Bay's bats into hibernation. Wakefield was unbeaten in his first 19 career appearances at the Trop until the Rays finally solved him last year on Sept. 23, and they got him again here in July even though he surrendered just one run.

What happened Wednesday night, however, was beyond the realm of anything Wakefield had ever experienced at the Trop. He had surrendered more than four runs here only once before - five in five innings on Opening Day 2003 - and had allowed a total of nine homers in 22 previous appearances.

The Rays had hit three balls out of the park before Wakefield recorded his fifth out Wednesday. A two-run blast by Willy Aybar gave Tampa Bay a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the first, and back-to-back drives by eighth- and ninth-place hitters Gabe Gross and Fernando Perez in the second padded it out.

It should be noted that Aybar and Perez, both switch-hitters, went deep while batting right-handed against the righty Wakefield at Maddon's suggestion. It's been that kind of year for the Rays.

"Our guys were great from the very first pitch," said Maddon. "The Red Sox get up very quickly, Papi goes deep, and then we answered it very fast against a guy that has been nearly unbeatable in this ballpark. That was a good sign."

Wakefield's night ended when Evan Longoria doubled with one out in the third, sparking a rally that would see three more runs score as the Red Sox rolled three different relievers out to the mound before the third out was recorded.

Two of them - Devern Hansack and Javier Lopez - made throwing errors in the inning, and David Aardsma would later let an easy infield pop drop for a hit as Boston began to look completely discombobulated.

Contrast that with the poise Grant Balfour showed in coming on to replace Matt Garza with two out in the fifth, two runners on and David Ortiz at the plate. Big Papi had accounted for all of Boston's runs with a pair of majestic homers off Garza, and Maddon wasn't interested in letting the slugger spin again. His decision cost Garza a chance to get the win, but Maddon's priority was halting any hint of momentum for the visitors.

"I was upset," Garza admitted, "but it was the right move."

Maddon was vindicated in an epic strength-against-strength at-bat that saw Ortiz foul off Balfour's 96-mph fastballs with mighty hacks but ultimately fly out to center field to end the inning.

Balfour would work into the sixth before handing it off to J.P. Howell and Chad Bradford to close it out. The Rays' bullpen didn't allow a run in the final two games of the series, working 71/3 shutout innings as the relievers continued to round back into the fine top-to-bottom form they enjoyed earlier in the season.

The last couple of evenings have seen the Rays revert back to the formula that has carried them to such unprecedented heights. And as much as champagne wishes might drift into their heads the next couple of days, said Carlos Pena, they have to maintain a level-headed approach in the coming days.

"We enjoy it," Pena said. "But at some point you've got to say, 'OK, it's time to go back to the basics.' That's the way we got here, that's why we're able to enjoy it. But how did we get here? Little by little, just focusing on the basics. That's all we try to do."

Just a little bit more and the word "enjoy" will be woefully insufficient to describe their feelings.

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

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT