Rays have no plans to let off the gas over final weeks

When you are the defending World Series champions, you have a pretty good idea of how to negotiate the postseason. And when you entered Saturday's action with the best record in baseball, you feel pretty good about your chances of defending your title providing everyone is rested and healthy.

Those are key words to Yankees GM Brian Cashman: "rested" and "healthy"

To ensure his ballclub is both, Cashman said the Yankees will ease up on the gas, so to speak, during the last two weeks of the season. Innings will be monitored for those in the bullpen, and position players will miss some games. And, yes, Cashman said, the rest-up for the postseason includes the four-game series against the Rays, which begins Monday at Yankee Stadium. It's a series the Yankees very much want to win, but not so much that they want jeopardize the postseason.

"We're in this thing to win a World Series," Cashman told Newsday. "Our focus is a World Series, not 10 years from now being known as division champions. If you're not World Series champions, nothing else matters. Nobody really remembers."

Down here, the philosophy is a little different.

"We're still playing it straight up," Rays manager Joe Maddon said.

Now, Maddon agrees with Cashman that winning the World Series is the ultimate goal. But Maddon would also like to see a 2010 American League East champions banner hanging from a catwalk next season along with the perks enjoyed after such a title, which could be homefield advantage throughout the American League playoffs.

Of course Maddon thinks his team is capable of winning the World Series as a wild card. But why take chances?

The Rays still have a few things to figure out before the playoffs, such as: Can Jeremy Hellickson pitch effectively out of the bullpen to warrant a spot on the postseason roster? Can Jake McGee be the second lefty in the bullpen?

That's why you saw those two pitching Tuesday night against the Yankees.

"If they're going to step up and be those guys they're going to have to feel the heat a little bit, too," Maddon said.

The Rays also have to figure out who will be the fourth starter during the American League Division Series and which one of the current five will sit out that round, if Dioner Navarro and his defensive skills are worthy of October baseball, and if Rocco Baldelli and Brad Hawpe can make them a better team.

What Maddon doesn't feel he has to do is get his regular players off their feet. He was doing that as far back as May 4, when Jason Bartlett and B.J. Upton were given the night off when the team began a nine-game West Coast road trip in Seattle.

"I've been criticized for it, but our guys have been given different forms of rest during the course of the season in the hopes that you don't have to rest them so much right now," Maddon said.

It is difficult this far into a season for a player to receive the rest he needs. One or two days off isn't going to help a player who's playing on fumes.

"The point is, you don't want to wait until someone breaks until you give them a rest. You try to prevent them from breaking by giving them a rest," Maddon said.

Maddon was speaking in general terms, and not about the Yankees specifically.

He wasn't about to criticize Cashman's plans over these final two weeks, especially when it can benefit the Rays.

As for easing up a little bit with the eye toward a bigger prize? Not going to happen here, though Maddon said he won't deviate from how he handles Rafael Soriano, Joaquin Benoit and Grant Balfour. When they need a game off, they'll get one.

As for these final 15 games, including today's series finale with the Angels, Maddon's foot is on the gas until the champagne starts flowing.

"Absolutely," he said. "And there's no other way to look at it, I'm sorry."