Despite loss, Rays encouraged with first World Series experience

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Strangest thing actually happened Wednesday evening. The rumors came true, the speculation was confirmed. A World Series actually lifted off from Tropicana Field, the place where, once upon a time, not so long ago, hope went to die.

From Whoopie cushion to World Series venue in 11 years.

And as Tampa Bay proved yet again while dropping a 3-2 decision to Philadelphia in a game they'll be talking about for years in both places, those days are long gone.

When hope doesn't take root and grow now, it just sort of waits in the on-deck circle for that chance to take another hack.

Somehow, Tampa Bay managed to drop Game 1 even though Philadelphia went 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position.

Oh for 13!

And yet, it wasn't 30 minutes after the first World Series appearance in franchise history that the resilient Rays already were looking at silver linings.

"I think it was a little less than that today," said center fielder B.J. Upton, who was inauspicious in grounding into two double plays en route to an 0-for-4 evening. "I think everyone in here knows we played a good game."

"Hats off to the Phillies," first baseman Carlos Pena said. "But we're going to keep coming. This is what we do. This is what got us here."

That Game 1 played out the way it did is either a really, really good sign for the Phillies (heck, if they can win like this, just wait until they actually poke a knock with a man on second or third) or a really, really good sign for Tampa Bay (if Ryan Howard's swing continues to emulate a hippo doing the hula hoop in the batter's box, the Rays can't lose).

You just knew that a World Series at the Trop had to veer toward the unexpected. And it did. The Phillies were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position through four innings and still led 3-1. They were 0-for-9 after five and still led 3-2.

They tempted fate. They laughed at risk.

It was cowbells and catwalks, and a cookie for Chase Utley.

The second baseman drilled it over the right-field fence when the game was only three batters old to catapult the Phillies to a 2-0 lead. It was uphill for Tampa Bay from that point on.

"The scouting report was to attack him on the corners over and over and I just didn't get it done," said Scott Kazmir, the Tampa Bay starter who left a fastball low, middle-in above Utley's knees, rather than directing it away.

"He's different than most left-handed hitters," Kazmir said. "Most left-handers in the league, their swings, they really don't get to the inside fastball. With him, you can tell, he loves to keep his hands in. You have to learn on the go."

Which is exactly what the Rays have done most of this season, and especially what they'll have to do as they become accustomed to the concept of a World Series.

The Phillies, too. Creative Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon had ordered an infield shift on Utley, moving second baseman Akinori Iwamura closer to Pena at first, while shortstop Jason Bartlett swung around to the second baseman's side of the bag.

That left only third baseman Evan Longoria on the left side of the infield with Phillies outfielder Jayson Werth at first, and Utley first attempted to push a bunt down the third-base line.

It went foul but, five pitches later, he officially ushered a brand new Fall Classic era to Tampa. Thwack!

"I guess it turned out pretty well," Utley said. "The third baseman was playing shortstop, I figured with a guy on first and one out, I'd try to create something at that point."

Said manager Charlie Manuel: "He was bunting on his own. If it had been a fair ball, he might have gotten a double out of it. That other one, he hit the home run.

"Pretty good, wasn't it?"

You might say.

This World Series nearly took off without Kazmir. Which was an interesting development, being that he was the Rays' starting pitcher and all.

Facing a lineup that hadn't played a real, live game in a week, Kazmir threw first-pitch balls to eight of Philadelphia's first 13 hitters. The Cheez Whiz they glop onto the cheesesteak sandwiches in Philly has more consistency than did Kazmir early. He was slow in his delivery and behind early in most counts.

What it looked like was that the Phillies handled their first taste of a World Series with more aplomb than the Rays. Utley said they wanted to score early to take the crowd out of it, and he handled that himself.

"That's how you do it," Manuel said. "If you want to take the wind out of the sails and you shut the cowbells up and get some home runs, that will do it.

Tampa Bay had great enthusiasm going into its first Fall Classic, and a close loss in Game 1 didn't dampen it much. (Getty Images)

"Except in Citizens Bank Park. If you hit enough there, they ring a bell. They ring the Liberty Bell."

Over in the Rays clubhouse, they swear they weren't nervous, their knees weren't jellied and their stomachs didn't quake at the sudden presence of a World Series.

"It was really cool in introductions," first baseman Carlos Pena said. "It is surreal, I'll be honest with you. Nothing I can put my finger on. It's maybe afterward that you can stop and look back at the World Series. Right now, everything's going so fast.

"We don't want to make it bigger. What we want to do right now is make it smaller."

To that end, Maddon, finally finding some quiet time on the eve of the World Series, shared a bottle of wine with his fiancée, Jaye, and then slept until noon Wednesday. He still managed to cram in his daily bike ride before going to the park.

Sitting in the dugout before the game, watching several hundred media members mill about, Rays outfielder Rocco Baldelli was asked when the last time was that he saw that many folks on the field at the Trop.

"The boat show," he quipped.

"All of a sudden, you gain an identity," Maddon said of what a World Series can do both for a franchise and for a city. "You gain an identity within Major League Baseball. The Tampa Bay area has had a Super Bowl champ, an NHL champ and now we need a baseball champion.

"I think it creates civic pride throughout the region. I was just downtown today and saw a 55-year-old dude, like myself, wearing a Kazmir jersey. I absolutely loved it."

After all, if this continues, who knows what's next?

"This past summer I was reading a book about Branch Rickey and the Brooklyn Dodgers by Lee Lowenfish, The Ferocious Gentleman, and how the Dodgers players would just walk around Brooklyn and people would just give them free food," Maddon said. "Like groceries, fruit or whatever."

Game 2, Thursday night: Will play for bananas?

Let's see what Tampa Bay starter James Shields and Phillies flamethrower Brett Myers have to say about it.