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Rays On Brink Of First AL East Crown

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By MARC LANCASTER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 25, 2008

BALTIMORE - If you're looking for 200 bottles of champagne on short notice in the Charm City, you're in business.

Through no fault of their own, the Rays left their celebratory stock behind Wednesday night, but they'll be placing their order for a couple hundred more bottles of bubbly to be delivered to Comerica Park in Detroit this afternoon.

Tampa Bay's 11-6 romp over the Orioles - which featured Baltimore scoring all of its runs in the first two innings and the Rays reeling off 11 unanswered after that - wasn't quite enough to pop the corks on the AL East title. Boston saw to that by holding off the Indians 5-4 at Fenway Park, but the Rays' fate is entirely in their own hands from this point forward.

One win in the four-game series at Detroit that begins this afternoon and they'll be raising a division champs banner at Tropicana Field next spring.

"Obviously you want Cleveland to win, but it wasn't a letdown - we still had to win the ballgame for things to go our way," said B.J. Upton. "It just means hopefully it'll just be another day and we'll put it behind us."

The Rays have become experts on moving past disappointment. Perhaps it helped that the Orioles were on the other side, but the Rays hardly blinked even after they went down 5-0 in the first and trailed 6-0 through three innings. Given their comeback the previous evening, all that meant was they had more time to work with in figuring out how to do it again.

The abominable Orioles pitching staff played a starring role, hitting three Rays batters and seeing them all come around to score while also forcing in three runs with bases-loaded walks.

The Rays' charge back began in the fourth, sparked by an inning-opening walk and hit batter courtesy of Baltimore starter Radhames Liz. Gabe Gross would look in the first run with a bases-loaded walk, and by the end of the inning - which also included a costly throwing error by Liz - the Rays suddenly had a manageable 6-5 deficit.

Two innings later, the Rays went over the top. Akinori Iwamura's triple into the right-field corner brought around Fernando Perez and Jason Bartlett and the Rays led 7-6.

Tampa Bay piled on by conjuring four more runs in the eighth despite notching only one hit - a single by Dioner Navarro that also happened to end the inning, as he was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. Baltimore relievers issued four walks - including two by Randor Bierd with the bases loaded - and hit yet another batter to turn it into a laugher.

Once the victory was secure, the Rays had tied a club record for the largest deficit overcome in a win, accomplishing it for the fifth time.

"That doesn't happen much, but it just seems to keep happening to us," Upton said of the 11 straight runs. "Hopefully we can take it into the postseason."

Edwin Jackson continues to confound as he alternates scintillating and frustrating starts. He has now surrendered six runs in every other appearance dating back to the beginning of September, with a couple of quality starts sandwiched in between.

But at least he has proven he can take a punch, if the Rays choose to let him. Once he gets through the first inning or two, he generally gets better as the game goes along, and that was the case Wednesday.

The first six batters of the game for Baltimore collected hits, the first five of them coming around to score. Jackson finally struck out two batters to escape the first, then allowed a quick run in the second before an inning-ending double play saved him from further damage, and that was it. Jackson pitched into the sixth with minimal difficulty, and by then the Rays' offense had put him in position to pick up a win.

"I love when a guy can do that," said Rays manager Joe Maddon. "He has a very difficult beginning and has the wherewithal to stay in the moment, settle down and give us a chance to win, which he did."

It was up to the bullpen from there. Chad Bradford and Trever Miller handled the assignment with ease and minimal drama.

The most interesting moment supplied by the Rays' relievers came in the eighth, when Miller drilled Ramon Hernandez in the left thigh with a pitch. Simple and professionally executed, there was little doubt that delivery served as the Rays' response to Hernandez knocking down Iwamura with a crossed arm to the second baseman's chest as he was tagged out on the base paths in the sixth inning.

It was just another statement from the Rays, delivered in the context of a larger one Wednesday night.

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

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