Rays' Upton getting time off for sore left ankle

B.J. Upton had a bad night in center field Wednesday, and it doesn't sound like he'll be out there again soon.

After a series of miscues and near misses in the field that Upton and Manager Joe Maddon said were brought on by increasing soreness in Upton's left ankle, he was lifted in favor of Fernando Perez when the Rays took the field in the bottom of the sixth.

"Starting off the game it wasn't too bad," Upton said. "Just inning by inning, just from standing on it and getting in kind of the ready position, it got more and more sore as the game went on."

Before he left, Upton committed a three-base error when he muffed an over-the-shoulder catch on a Robinson Cano fly to the warning track in the second, then barely got to a short fly from Brett Gardner to end the fourth. In the fifth, Upton couldn't get back on an arcing drive off Derek Jeter's bat and watched as it bounced over the fence for a ground-rule double.

Maddon said Upton would get at least a few days to rest before returning to the field.

"I'm going to give him some time to get it well," Maddon said. "Everybody's playing with a lot of intensity among our group, and if you're to the point where you really can't get after it, I would prefer that he just gets well."

Finishing strong: J.P. Howell is slight to begin with, and after absorbing the pounding of throwing more relief innings than any other pitcher in the majors the last two seasons - 153 and counting - it was hardly a surprise that his body began to break down under the strain last month.

Unwilling and unable to take a step back in the midst of a playoff push, all Howell could do was try to pitch through it, and as anyone who has watched the Rays during the past month knows, the results have generally not been pretty.

"It's just one of those things where it hit me," Howell said Wednesday. "I hit a tough spell in August, fatigue-wise, and I tried to manipulate my body a different way. It worked for a little bit, and now I'm feeling pretty healthy at this point and I'm off mechanically."

Howell tried to compensate for his diminishing strength by altering his motion, and ended up falling off the mound toward third base on a regular basis, his front leg giving way as he delivered the pitch.

"It's like I'm throwing towards the right-handed batter's box instead of throwing towards home," he said.

Howell's inability to hit his spots has been the biggest issue. Though his pitches still have plenty of movement, he needs to be able to throw strikes consistently to succeed.

"The big thing is, behind in the count, a lot of the walks have hurt him," said Maddon. "If he can get into some better counts and cut down on the walks, I think he'll be fine, actually."

Playoff picture: Charlotte evened its best-of-three series by beating Fort Myers 7-4 on Wednesday night. Alex Cobb was the beneficiary as the Stone Crabs scored all of their runs in the first four innings. ... Durham scored three times in the fifth inning to tie the game, then five in the following inning to take the lead for good in beating Louisville 8-4 to open their playoff series. Jeremy Hellickson didn't get the win but struck out 12 in 52/3 innings.