No Heroics On This Night

ST. PETERSBURG - There it was, a brightly wrapped moment for the Can't Miss Kid named Evan Longoria.

As he came to the plate in the eighth inning Friday night, two men were on and he represented the go-ahead run in an evening the Rays spent chasing the Boston Red Sox. As we have seen so frequently this summer, Longoria thrives on stages such as these.

Even his tormentor, Boston starter Daisuke Matsuzaka, was out of the game.

You could picture the ball rocketing toward the left-field bleachers to pull another one out for the Rays. Or perhaps it would clank off one of the catwalk rings. But surely he would do something dramatic.

Alas, he did.

On a 2-0 pitch, he swung at would have been ball 3. Two pitches later, he grounded routinely to short. As soon as the ball left Longoria's bat, you knew. Everyone of the 35,001 at the Trop knew.

Double play.

Longoria slammed his helmet to the ground in real anger as he crossed first base.

Opportunity lost.

Game lost.

The Rays walked off an inning later with a 2-0 loss in the opening game of the American League Championship Series. The cowbell-clangers who filled the Trop couldn't help. The catwalks were no use.

And now they have to confront some disturbing numbers.

Extremely disturbing.

Pushing Too Hard

Longoria is 1-for-16 with eight strikeouts since his electrifying first game of the playoffs, that two-homer coming out party against the Sox from Chicago. He is hitless in his last 13 attempts. He has looked tentative at the plate, out of sorts, chasing pitches he used to sneer at during the regular season.

"I kind of noticed that myself," Rays manager Joe Maddon said afterward.

During the regular season, no one places much emphasis on a hiccup that covers three or four games. This isn't the regular season, though. Everything gets analyzed, picked apart and judged.

"He didn't have good at-bats tonight and he'd be the first one to tell you that," Maddon said. "I'd like to see him go out there tonight and just be himself. He may have felt pressure tonight, but he'll be fine. He's a young man who is a major part of the reason we're here. I really expect him to bounce back."

He'll stay in the clean-up spot of the order - Maddon made that much clear. Maddon is all about patience and that's what Longoria needs most right now. He has been flummoxed by off-speed pitches throughout this slump and never did seem to find out where Matsuzaka was coming from.

He wasn't alone, of course. The Rays didn't have a hit until the seventh inning against Dice-K's baffling array of breaking stuff backed up by hard gas.

"It's a little bit frustrating," Longoria said. "We wasted so many opportunities. Dice-K just kept the ball down. We had the chances but we couldn't cash in. We've always been able to rebound from situations like this and I think we will again."

Had Green Light

Still, there was that moment in the eighth when it was all right there.

He was ahead in the count 2-0. The joint was rocking.

"I looked in the dugout," he said, "and I didn't get a take sign. I felt like it was my best chance. I guessed fastball, I guessed right, but I just didn't get a good swing on it."

The double play followed shortly after.

There was so much to lament about this game. The Rays wasted a great outing from James Shields, and they left the bases loaded in the first; Longoria struck out then, with two on and one out. But looking back is not their style and the rookie is trying to adapt.

"You hit skids. That's the way it goes," Longoria said. "I'll get through it. Sometimes it only takes one at-bat to get out of it. That's what I'm hoping for tonight - a good at-bat to get out of this."

One good at-bat would have made all the difference on this night but it didn't happen, and now the Rays have lost dome-field advantage in this series. They've come back before, but they're about to be tested in ways that exceed anything they've faced this season.

Longoria knows all about that now.