Defense powering Rays' playoff push

It's the eighth inning of a two-run game Monday night in Detroit.

The Tigers' Jhonny Peralta leads off with a high and hard line drive to the left side. Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria sees the ball off the bat, times his leap perfectly and robs Peralta of at least a leadoff single.

That means there's no one on base two batters later when Brennan Boesch belts a home run off Joaquin Benoit to cut the Rays' lead to one.

Maybe Benoit would have pitched to Boesch more carefully if Peralta had been on base. And as it turned out, the Rays scored two in the ninth and went on to win 6-3, giving David Price his club-record 15th win of the season.

But Longoria's save kept the Tigers from getting anything started in the eighth. It's the kind of play the Rays make look routine, an example of the defense that has kept them in a pennant race this year while their tailpipe has been dragging the road on offense.

"I don't know if our defense is better this year," said Longoria, who became the second Rays player to earn a Gold Glove last year after Carlos Pena in 2008. "I would say to this point, we've made some bigger plays and some plays that have won us some games.

"But we've had consistently good defense for the past three years. In '08, we had a couple of walk-off defensive wins, and we've had that this year. I don't think it's that we're better defensively; I think it's that we've had bigger moments."

Manager Joe Maddon, whose club opens a six-game homestand tonight against Baltimore, doesn't agree. He thinks the Rays' defense took a step backward after they went to the World Series in 2008.

He says there was a major push in spring training to return the Rays' fielding to 2008 form, and players have responded.

The numbers bear that out. Since June 22, the Rays have made only 11 errors in 45 games, six fewer than any other club (San Francisco and Cincinnati had 17 entering Thursday).

During that span, Tampa Bay has climbed from 21st in fielding percentage to eighth (.986) after ranking 20th last year at .983.

"I really believe if you want to make comparisons, 2008 to now, I think it's as good, or maybe even a little better, as a defense," Maddon said. "We've really been good. Whether it's (Reid) Brignac or (Sean) Rodriguez or whoever's at second, J.B. (Jason Bartlett) at short. ...

"Longo is having a hell of a year. Carlos is the same guy. I honestly believe Carl Crawford has gotten better, and B.J. Upton is always good. You've got right field, and everybody out there (Ben Zobrist, Matt Joyce, Gabe Kapler) has played at a high level."

The Rays play such good defense that when there are lapses, such as the throwing errors by Rodriguez and Matt Garza that led to a 2-1 loss at Toronto last Friday, or Upton misplaying a line drive in Wednesday's 3-2 loss at Detroit, they stand out doubly.

Far more often than not, the Rays make the ordinary look routine and the routine nearly automatic.

"You can play defense every day," said Crawford, the AL's starting left fielder in the All-Star Game and possibly the leading contender to give the Rays a third different Gold Glove winner in three years. "That's the one thing we try to tell ourselves. If you're not swinging the bat well, at least try to play good defense."

While pitching and hitting are easy to measure through statistics, exceptional defense is more difficult to quantify. Fielding percentage doesn't account for sure hits that are taken away, the doubles that were held to singles, double plays that were turned that wouldn't have been elsewhere.

It doesn't account for the pitch counts that were saved, allowing starting pitchers to stay in games longer, or how many extra innings pitchers are able to pitch in a given season.

How much credit does the Rays' defense get for the club's AL-best 3.62 earned run average? Obviously, Tampa Bay's pitching would be successful anywhere (the Rays are second in the AL in strikeouts), but would it be this stingy?

"I would think (the defense) is probably the biggest factor," Rays pitching coach Jim Hickey said. "I mean, we've pitched well for the most part all year. But we could easily be middle of the pack in earned run average with the exact same pitchers we have if we had just a pedestrian defense."

After finishing second in the AL in ERA in 2008 at 3.82, the Rays fell to sixth at 4.33. There were a number of causes last year, including starters Scott Kazmir and Andy Sonnanstine struggling, not having a closer most of the year and workhorse reliever J.P. Howell wearing down.

Maddon believes the defense not being good was a cause as well.

Just as there's no question the pitchers are better this year, there's no doubt the defense behind them has made a difference.

"The defense has been there day in and out, and you know what?" Hickey said. "That was probably the biggest factor for me in '08. It was there day in and out, and in '09, it wasn't.

"It was kind of sketchy, and this year, I think it's pretty much been there every day."