Rays' Longoria finishing strong in '09

If the Rays were still in contention for a postseason berth, Evan Longoria would be peaking at the right time.

They aren't, so the All-Star third baseman is playing to put some midseason struggles behind him, close out his second season in the majors strong and carry some momentum into 2010.

"We've got on this little run here at the end, and I kind of have a feeling of, 'God, I wish we were in it right now, because I feel like we are playing pretty good baseball as a club,'" Longoria said. "It's kind of too little, too late."

Not everyone on the Rays, who open their final road trip tonight at Texas, is surging like Longoria.

Although he has hit only one home run in his past 13 games, the 2008 American League Rookie of the Year is batting .362 with seven home runs, nine doubles and 20 RBIs since Aug. 29, pushing his average back up to .283.

"He might be playing his best baseball from my perspective," Manager Joe Maddon said. "I'm talking about everything: Defense, base running, hitting, not expanding the strike zone, hitting with power.

"Everything he's doing right now is really good. And the defense has really gotten air tight again."

With 108 RBIs, 31 home runs and 44 doubles, Longoria is the ninth player in major-league history to reach 100 RBIs, 30 home runs and 40 doubles before age 24. The RBIs are third-most in club history, and the doubles are three shy of Aubrey Huff's club record.

Viewed as a whole, Longoria has put together a fine encore to his breakout rookie season. But like the Rays' offense in general, the production has been uneven.

After starting the season on a blistering pace - he was named American League Player of the Month in April after hitting .369 with six home runs and 24 RBIs with a .714 slugging percentage - Longoria tapered off during the summer, hitting .233 in June and .189 in July.

Hitting coach Steve Henderson says that besides struggling with sliders down and away, which have been Longoria's weakness since coming to the majors, Longoria had troubles with fastballs.

Pitchers made adjustments, and Longoria needed to make adjustments of his own - and he did.

"He's just gotten back to hitting the fastball like he should," Henderson said. "He'd gotten away from it for a bit. But he's a young kid in his second year; he's having a great year as far as I'm concerned."

Longoria also battled hamstring tightness during the summer. He believes that while it didn't affect his offense, it might partly explain why his previously superb defense tailed off for awhile.

"There were some times when I was coming off of that injury, there were some balls I would normally charge or get to on my left or right that I really couldn't physically get to," he said. "It wasn't that I couldn't do it; it was just limiting me at that point."

Longoria is healthy again, and he looks smoother both defensively and running the bases. The team RBI leader might not draw any comparisons to Carl Crawford on the base paths, but he is 8-for-8 on stolen-base attempts this year.

Rays coaches believe he has only begun to tap his running potential.

"I talk to him about it all the time," said bench coach Dave Martinez, who oversees the Rays' base running. "Even at the beginning of the year, I told him, 'I want you to be aware, because you can probably steal 25 bases, easy. But you've got to pay attention.

"'You've got to know who you can do it against, which guys you can't, which guys you can get a bigger lead on.' ... It was hard for him, because he's never done it. But all of a sudden, he's starting to realize he can."

Longoria is somewhat self-deprecating about his speed, which he calls "marginal at best," but Martinez says he runs pretty well and that if he maintains himself physically he could become a 30-30 player.

Said Longoria: "I've felt more confident on the base paths this year. I think I just have to get used to the feeling of accepting being thrown out, because I don't really like to go unless I know I'm going to be safe.

"I'll try to improve my speed in the offseason and get better at it."

About Longoria's game in general, Henderson smiles and tosses out an old cliche.

"The sky's the limit," he said.