Feisty Rays continue to prove all naysayers wrong
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Here's one for you. Biggest game in Tampa Bay franchise history, and the ninth inning begins like the start of a joke.
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| The Rays keep changing their look, but the storyline's the same. (AP) |
Ninth inning. Tie game. Man on. None out. First place in the AL East on the line. Carlos Pena at the plate. Boston reliever Justin Masterson kicks and fires. Packed house of 32,079 screaming.
And, seriously. Here comes an errant baseball rolling onto the field from the Boston bullpen down the right-field line. Masterson's pitch blasts past Pena for a strike, putting the Rays' No. 2 hitter in a 1-2 hole. Except, no pitch because third-base umpire Jerry Meals called time when he saw the ball rolling past him.
So Masterson tries again, Pena now has an extra strike, next pitch is a ball and it's 2-1 instead of 1-2 and Pena eventually walks.
Ball comes rolling out of the bullpen ... are you kidding?
Against all odds, the authors of baseball's best story still have some material left. In the face of treacherous headwinds, baseball's Little Engine That Could still retains plenty of steam.
Three batters after Pena, Dioner Navarro dropped a deep fly into center to drive Jason Bartlett home with the winning run, completing another chapter in a storybook season, this one's final score 2-1, to reclaim sole possession of the AL East lead from the Red Sox.
"That was like, thank the Lord," Pena said of the ball rolling in from the bullpen wiping out what would have been strike two. "It was cool. I was really happy with that."
"Yeah, I saw it," Boston manager Terry Francona groaned. "I was hoping (the umpires) didn't."
So one night after the Red Sox opened with what third baseman Mike Lowell called a "statement game," bludgeoning the Rays 13-5, Tampa Bay delivers a poised and composed answer.
One day after losing sole grip of first place in the AL East after 53 consecutive days of owning it, Tampa Bay simply shrugs and moves back into the penthouse.
"When you're able to maintain your focus, maintain your thought process ... composure is important," said Joe Maddon, the Rays' New Age manager. "People are screaming, stuff is heating up, you need to slow it down.
