ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- So this is how you beat the Red Sox, by keeping them up all night.
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| No, that isn't a yawn at 1:35 a.m. These Rays prove they can stay up late -- and win games. (AP) |
"It doesn't matter to us," Rays designated hitter/father figure Cliff Floyd was explaining in the early hours of Sunday morning, after the Tampa Bay kids had made the American League Championship Series interesting again.
"We've got a lot of young guys in here," Floyd said. "So they're up past 1 o'clock a lot. We've got a lot of young 'uns in here. Old guys had to get out early. I was out in the sixth (inning)."
So that's it. The Rays, with 23-year-old David Price on the mound at the end, with 25-year-old Fernando Perez slapping home plate with the winning run, and with 24-year-old B.J. Upton driving him in, were perfectly positioned to win this 9-8, 11-inning, 5-hour and 27-minute marathon, which got done at 1:35 a.m.
And the Red Sox, now 0-2 this postseason in games that last five hours or more (and 4-0 in games that get done earlier), were pretty much destined to lose it. Especially when their final pitcher was 42-year-old Mike Timlin.
If only it had been that simple.
This was a game that left both teams with questions about their supposed ace starters, a game with tough decisions all the way through for both managers, a game that might not have ended when it did except for the fact that Perez is really, really, really fast.
"Like I said, in a straight-up race, I've got him over Seabiscuit," Rays manager Joe Maddon said.
Perez entered the game as a pinch-runner, after Timlin walked Dioner Navarro to begin the 11th.
"It's a very, very simple job," Perez said. "Don't get picked off. Go base to base, and just don't fall."
Yeah, a simple job, until you're standing on third base with one out, and Upton sends a fly ball to shallow right field. And there you are, with your 23 games of big-league experience, and with your team relying on you to keep the postseason dream alive.
The Rays season wouldn't have ended if J.D. Drew had thrown Perez out at the plate. But if the Rays had lost this game, if they'd gone to Boston down 0-2 in this series, it would have felt almost over.
