The Remarkably Resilient Rays
Tampa Bay Can Clinch a Playoff Berth with Two Wins in its Final Four Home Games
By Carl Danbury (Posted 9-18-08)
On Oct. 2, 2007, I posted a rather caustic blog about the Tampa Bay Rays because they had just surpassed the San Diego Padres for the worse winning percentage of any expansion team in their first 10 seasons. Less than a year later, it is time to sing the praises of the Rays, manager Joe Maddon and the resilience his players have demonstrated throughout the 2008 season, which will land the franchise in the A.L. playoffs for the first time in franchise history in October. With 12 games left in the regular season, the Rays hold a two-game lead in the A.L. East over Boston, and a nine-game advantage over Minnesota for a Wild-Card berth.
During the past 10 days, the Rays have faced the 2007 World Series champion Boston Red Sox six times. After losing the series opener on each occasion with the Red Sox creeping to within a game or less of the division lead, the Rays bounced back to win the next two games of each series. No one, and I mean no one outside of the Rays players and coaches believed that could happen.
Sep. 8 at Fenway Park, John Lester shutout the Rays 3-0 and the Sox were within a half-game of the division lead. The following night, the Rays trailed 4-3 heading into the top of ninth inning. Dan Johnson, recalled earlier in the day from Triple-A, slugged a game tying home run off closer Jonathan Papelbon, and catcher Dioner Navarro doubled in the go-ahead run giving the Rays a 5-4 lead. Rays’ closer Troy Percival recorded the third out with a runner on third base in the bottom of the ninth to preserve the win.
The following night, the teams were tied from the bottom of the third inning to the top of the 14th when Rays’ first baseman Carlos Pena hit a three-run homer to give the Rays a 4-1 lead. They held on to win 4-2 and left Boston with a two-and-a-half game lead in the A.L. East. The Red Sox had runners on first and second in the ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th innings.
Six days later, the Red Sox came to Tropicana Field trailing the Rays by just one game. The Sox jumped all over Rays’ starter Scott Kazmir for four home runs and added two more off the bullpen to draw within .002 percentage points of the Rays for first place. The 13-5 rout signified to all that the Sox were ready to assume their rightful spot atop the division standings the next evening with Josh Beckett taking the hill against Andy Sonnanstine.
Beckett was masterful through six innings, limiting the Rays to just two singles, and Sonnanstine did his part by limiting the Sox to three hits through six frames. He yielded a sacrifice fly to Kevin Youklis in the top of the sixth, the game’s only run at that point. However, Pena greeted Beckett with a solo shot to lead off the seventh inning and evened the score at 1-1.
That set the stage for Navarro again, who lifted a fly ball to deep center with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the ninth to give the Rays a 2-1 victory and a full game lead in the standings.
Last night in front of a sold-out crowd, behind home runs by Gabe Gross, Fernando Perez and Willie Aybar, the Rays beat the Sox 10-3 to extend their division lead to two games. Two wins in their next four games at home against Minnesota will enable the Rays to clinch a berth in the postseason.
After the game, rookie Perez told people not to expect too much else from the Rays in terms of how they win games.
“The way this team is put together, it isn't put together like the Yankees. It isn't a horde of superstars that are expected to do well. This team is built on solid pitching and unity. Nobody sticks out. To see us win a game, everybody comes in and does something. We don't have the personalities that stand in the way of that.”
Nor do the Rays have gaudy statistics to wow the average baseball fan. Navarro leads the team with a .291 average, while Pena leads the Rays with 29 home runs and 89 runs batted in. Rookie third baseman Evan Longoria (below), who has appeared in just 110 games, is second in both categories with 22 HRs and 74 RBIs.
The starting pitching staff includes just two hurlers who have won more than six games in a season prior to 2008, James Shields and Kazmir. The other three starters, Andy Sonnanstine, Edwin Jackson and Matt Garza were a combined 16-32 last season.
This year, however, each starting pitcher has won 11 games but none has won more than 13 to this point. The team ERA of 3.78 is third in the majors behind only Toronto and the LA Dodgers, and the Rays are second in hits allowed and opponents’ batting average.
To demonstrate just how resilient Maddon’s players are, only 2B Akinori Iwamura, CF B.J. Upton and Pena have appeared in more than 128 of the Rays’ 150 games. The Rays’ iconic leftfielder, Carl Crawford, hasn’t played since Aug. 9, due to finger surgery, and Upton is nursing a left quadriceps injury and missed five of the past six games against Boston.
Taking into consideration that the Rays never won more than 70 games in any of their previous 10 seasons, the fact that they are in first place with 90 wins and are the major league’s 29th ranked team in terms of salary is nothing short of a miracle.
In addition, the Rays hadn’t drawn more than 2 million fans in any season since their first in 1998, so attracting more than 30,000 fans for 20 home games this season heading into the final homestand is somewhat of a coup for both management and the players. The Rays have responded by winning a remarkable 19 of 20 with more than 30,000 fans in attendance, and are 31-8 with 20,000 or more inside their St. Pete digs.
Those numbers give credence to the idea of home-field advantage as the playoffs approach, which the Rays can earn by playing solidly during the final two weeks of the season. We can’t wait to see Rays’ fans carrying signs etched with the slogan: Trop ‘Til You Drop!