The Red Sox played nine games at Tropicana Field this season, winning just once. Now they face the Rays for the American League pennant, with four of the possible seven games scheduled for Tropicana Field.
A problem? Only if you think regular-season series determine postseason success, and only if you've already forgotten that the Red Sox just got past the Angels, a team that beat them eight times in nine regular-season meetings.
The Red Sox aren't healthy, with Mike Lowell unavailable for this series, J.D. Drew still battling a sore back and Josh Beckett's usual postseason dominance still in doubt because of a strained oblique.
A problem? Only if you forget that the Red Sox had exactly those same issues to deal with against the 100-win Angels, and still disposed of Mike Scioscia's club in four games.
So do the Red Sox face any problems in their bid to return to the World Series? Sure they do, because the Rays are a young, tough and resilient group that puts pressure on opponents the way the Angels hoped to but couldn't.
The Rays know that many people expect the Red Sox to blow past them in this series. They also know that most people expected the Sox to blow past them in the closing weeks of the American League East pennant race.
It didn't happen then, and you can argue that it won't happen now.
The Rays showed against the White Sox that they could play in October the same way they played from April through September. Their young starting pitchers were as good as ever, Evan Longoria and B.J. Upton had big games and when the White Sox challenged, the Rays didn't back down.
They won't back down against Boston, either, and they won't be intimidated by Fenway Park. They'll run on Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek when they can, and they'll keep coming at the Red Sox all the way through.
Still, the prediction here is that they'll fall just short. The young Rays are good enough to win, but the Red Sox are just a little bit more prepared to come out on top when it really counts.
The Rays will leave an impression, but they'll also leave with something left to accomplish next year.
