Phillies 4, Rays 3 (World Series - Game #5) [Phillies win series 4-1]

From losingest team to longest game, the Philadelphia Phillies are World Series champions.
Strange as that sounds.
Strange as it was.
Brad Lidge and the Phillies finished off the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 in a three-inning sprint Wednesday night to win a suspended Game 5 nearly 50 hours after it started.
Left in limbo by a two-day rainstorm, the Phillies seesawed to their first championship since 1980. Pedro Feliz singled home the go-ahead run in the seventh and Lidge closed out his perfect season to deliver the title Philly craved for so long.
“It was a crazy way to win it with a suspended game but we did and it’s over and we’re very excited,” 45-year-old Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer said. “It has been a long wait, but it’s worth it.”
Bundled in parkas and blankets, fans returned in force to Citizens Bank Park and saw the city claim its first major sports championship in 25 years. No more references needed to those sad-sack Phillies teams in the past and their 10,000-plus losses.
“They could taste it just as much as we could,” Series MVP Cole Hamels said.
It was among the wackiest endings in baseball history, a best-of-seven series turned into a best-of-3 1/2 showdown when play resumed in the bottom of the sixth inning tied at 2.
How bizarre? Hamels was a star in Game 5—and the ace never stepped on the mound Wednesday night; Two Rays relievers warmed up to start, and there was a pinch-hitter before a single pitch; “God Bless America” was sung rather than the national anthem, and it was quickly followed by the seventh-inning stretch.
All because the game was suspended Monday night after rain made the field into a quagmire, washing out the foul lines, creating a puddle at home plate and turning every ball an adventure. Commissioner Bud Selig eventually called it— he got booed when he presented the MVP trophy to Hamels.
For Philly, it was more than a World Series win. It was a bit of redemption for all the losses, the jokes, the slights.
Finally, something to celebrate.
How much did Philly fans want a champion to call its own?
Well, the sports hero they point to with the most pride isn’t even a real person—Rocky Balboa.
Yo, Adrian … the Phillies did it!
“It’s over,” shortstop Jimmy Rollins said. “It’s over, man.”
Lidge went 48-for-48 on save chances this year, including two this week. He retired two batters with a runner on second, striking out pinch-hitter Eric Hinske to end it.
Lidge jumped in front of the mound, landing on his knees with arms outstretched. Catcher Carlos Ruiz ran out to grab him, and teammates sprinted to the mound to join them as towel-waving fans let loose.
“At first, I couldn’t believe it. And then the gravity of what happened hit me,” Lidge said.
A generation ago, it was Tug McGraw who went wild when the Phillies won their first title. A few days after country singer Tim McGraw scattered his dad’s ashes on the mound, it was Lidge’s turn to throw the final pitch.
Despite low TV ratings and minus the majors’ most glamorous teams, fans will always remember how this one wrapped up. And for the first time in a long while, kids saw a World Series champion crowned before bedtime.
“I believe this firmly, our guys are not going to be satisfied without playing in October from now on,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “And that’s a good thing. And that’s all because of this group of people this year.”
Reliever J.C. Romero got the win, his second of the Series.
Hamels went 4-0 in five postseason starts, beating the Rays in Game 1 and pitching six sharp innings in the rain during Game 5. He was set to be the first batter when the game resumed, and was immediately pulled for a pinch-hitter.
While former NL MVPs Ryan Howard and Rollins drive the Phillies, it was their less-heralded teammates who helped win it on this chilly night.
Tied at 3, Pat Burrell led off the seventh with a drive off the center-field wall against J.P. Howell. Chad Bradford relieved and one out later Feliz singled home pinch-runner Eric Bruntlett.
Rocco Baldelli’s solo home run off Ryan Madson made it 3-all in the top of the seventh. The Rays almost got more, but All-Star second baseman Chase Utley alertly bluffed a throw to first on a grounder over the bag and instead threw out Jason Bartlett at the plate.
Pinch-hitter Geoff Jenkins, the first batter Wednesday night, doubled and later scored on Jayson Werth’s bloop single.
In all, there were six new pitchers, three pinch-hitters and two pinch-runners when play restarted.
Manager Charlie Manuel, whose NL East champions clinched a playoff spot in the final week, guided the Phillies’ second overall championship in six World Series tries. The Phils helped themselves by going 7-0 at home this postseason, beating Milwaukee and the Dodgers in the NL playoffs and then defeating the Rays.
“I always thought we’d win the World Series. I knew we could beat anyone in the league,” Manuel said.
Once known as a city of champions, Philadelphia sports fell on hard times after Julius Erving and Moses Malone led the Sixers to that 1983 title.
Since then, the Phillies, Eagles, Sixers and Flyers made it to the championship game or round—seven times, in total—and lost all of them.
The city became so starved for a crown that it was ready to throw a parade down Broad Street for a horse. But local colt Smarty Jones lost, too, in his bid for the Triple Crown.
“People enjoy being associated with winning and a world championship is the ultimate,” Mike Schmidt, MVP of the Phillies’ other championship, wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press this week. “It unites a town behind one team.”
Cheesesteaks, on the house.
Tampa Bay did itself proud, too, until this final week. Baseball’s best success story this season, the worst-to-first Rays played like the downtrodden Devil Rays from the past decade.
Even so, the gap between the Phils and Rays wasn’t enormous. Had Evan Longoria’s late, long drive off Jamie Moyer in Game 3 not been blown back by the wind, the teams might still be playing.
Xtra, xtra: The World Series failed to make it to a Game 6 for the fifth straight year, the first time that’s happened. Burrell went 1-for-14 in the five games. Howell put down the first sacrifice bunt of his career (Associated Press - Sports).

Phillies 10, Rays 2 (World Series - Game #4)

Ryan Howard could imagine the mayhem.
“It will be absolute bedlam,” he said. “It will be one of the craziest places on Earth. It’s kind of scary to imagine.”
First, though, the Phillies need one more win.
Their 10-2 romp over the Tampa Bay Rays gave Philadelphia a 3-1 World Series lead. Howard drove in five runs with two homers and Joe Blanton shut his eyes, swung and became the first pitcher in 34 years to homer in the Series.
Come Monday night, the team of 10,000 losses could give title-starved Philadelphia its first champion in any of the four big sports since the NBA’s 76ers in 1983. The Phillies’ only Series victory came in 1980.
“A championship is the only way to fully reverse that thought of how the Phillies are portrayed,” said Jimmy Rollins, who sparked them with three hits and three runs. “If we get that game, I believe we will be happy, the city will be happy, there will be a big parade.”
Blanton and four relievers combined on a five-hitter, and Jason Werth also homered.
In this campaign season, the Rays resemble a team from a swing—and miss— state. No. 3 hitter Carlos Pena and cleanup man Evan Longoria have combined to go an A-Rod-like 0-for-29 with 15 strikeouts in the Series. Longoria has gone hitless in four straight games for the first time in his big league career.
“What bothers me is we lose a couple of games, and people talk like we’ve got the worst team ever,” Cliff Floyd said. “This team is just going through a tough period. … But we’ve been down before. We know we can come back.”
Cole Hamels will try to close out the Series title on Monday night against Scott Kazmir in a rematch of Game 1 starters. Hamels (4-0) is trying to become the first pitcher to win five postseason starts in one year.
Of the 42 teams to take 3-1 World Series leads, 36 have gone on to win the crown. After splitting the first two games in Florida, the Phillies improved to 6-0 at Citizens Bank Park this postseason. That includes a wacky, rain-delayed 5-4 win in Game 3 that ended at 1:47 a.m. Sunday.
“Cole looks for these moments. I call him Hollywood, because when the lights are on, that’s when he’s at his best,” Rollins said. “And tomorrow night, the lights will definitely be on.”
A day after hitting his first homer of the Series, Howard connected twice. The major league leader in home runs and RBIs hit a three-run drive off Andy Sonnanstine that made it 5-1 in the fourth and sent screams through a whooped-up crowd of 45,903. Howard added a long, two-run shot against Dan Wheeler in the eighth.
Blanton, with a Greg Luzinski body type that’s a throwback to an era of pudgy pitchers, gave up four hits—including solo homers to Carl Crawford and pinch-hitter Eric Hinske—struck out seven and walked two in six-plus innings.
Just 2-for-33 (.061) with one RBI in his career to that point, Blanton homered in the fifth off Edwin Jackson. It was just the 15th home run by a pitcher in the Series, and the first since Oakland’s Ken Holtzman in 1974. No NL pitcher had homered since the Cardinals’ Bob Gibson in 1968.
“I just close my eyes and swing hard in case I make contact,” said Blanton, who thought he hadn’t homered since high school. “Better to be lucky than good, I guess.”
Rays manager Joe Maddon came out in midgame to complain to plate umpire Tom Hallion about a spot on Blanton’s cap.
“It was rather dark,” Maddon said. “I was concerned about that early on.”
Blanton pleaded not guilty.
“They rub the balls up with whatever they rub them up with, and you rub it up and get it on your hand,” he said. “It’s nothing sticky. Anybody can go touch it. It’s just basically just dirt from the ball.”
Rollins made a great escape from a rundown in the first inning—perhaps with the help of an umpire’s blown call—energizing the Phillies and rattling the Rays.
Second baseman Akinori Iwamura made two errors that led to unearned runs, and a frustrated Longoria—again taunted by chants of “E-va! E-va!” in reference to the actress of the same last name—struck out three times and swiped a hand through the air when a call went against him at third base.
“We know what’s going on, we’re just not reacting very well yet, but there is time,” Maddon said. “We have to not give them four outs in an inning. We have to have better at-bats.”
Had the Phillies come up with more timely hits—a familiar story— Philadelphia could have blown open the game earlier. The Phillies were 4-for-14 with runners in scoring position and are 6-for-47 in the Series.
Sonnanstine struggled with his offspeed stuff and needed 89 pitches to get through four innings. He allowed five runs—three earned—six hits and three walks.
“It’s win or go home. It’s simple, and no one in here wants to go home and wonder what if,” Floyd said.
Xtra, xtra: If the Phillies win Monday, it would mark the first time the Series has gone five straight years without reaching a Game 6. The only other four-year stretch without a Game 6 was 1913-16. Lenny Dykstra (1993) is the only other Phillies player with a multihomer Series game. With 25 postseason homers, the Rays trail only San Francisco (27 in 2002) for most in one postseason (Associated Press - Sports).

Phillies 5, Rays 4 (World Series - Game #3)

This was midnight madness, and then some, at the World Series.
“Freak things kind of happened there,” Eric Bruntlett said after scoring the winning run for the Philadelphia Phillies at 1:47 a.m.
Carlos Ruiz finished off a wacky ninth inning with an infield single with the bases loaded, and the Phillies outlasted the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4 early Sunday in Game 3 for a 2-1 lead.
Ruiz, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard homered for the Phils, but it took three kooky plays to win it on a bases-loaded trickler with no outs.
“It might have took a little squib roller down the third-base line, but at the same time it’s better to be lucky sometimes than to be good,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said.
The end was almost as bizarre as the 10:06 p.m. start, the latest in Series history. Baseball waited out a rainstorm that chased most fans out of their seats and delayed Jamie Moyer’s first pitch for 91 minutes.
The matchup of Philadelphia’s power vs. Tampa Bay’s speed left it at 4-all going to the bottom of the ninth.
Then it all came down to this: Rays reliever J.P. Howell hit Bruntlett with a pitch to start the inning. Enter Grant Balfour, who threw a wild pitch that caromed off the backstop to catcher Dioner Navarro, whose throw trying to get Bruntlett skipped into center field.
With Bruntlett on third, the Rays issued two intentional walks and brought in right fielder Ben Zobrist for a five-man infield.
“It looked like they were about to blitz,” Howard said.
Ruiz followed with a nubber down the line and third baseman Evan Longoria charged. He dived for the ball, and rushed an underhanded flip home that sailed over Navarro’s head.
“You couldn’t place a ball better than that. Lucky swing, perfect bounce,” Zobrist said.
The single was just the Phils’ second hit in 33 chances with runners in scoring position this Series.
The Phillies rushed from the dugout to congratulate Bruntlett at the plate and Ruiz at first base. The giant Liberty Bell in center field clanged in celebration—no cowbells here at Citizens Bank Park.
“You know what, it’s crazy,” Howard said. “It’s a little nerve-racking but to come out with a victory like that, it’s great.”
Game 4 is Sunday night and the weather forecast is fine for the matchup between the Phils’ Joe Blanton and Andy Sonnanstine.
The Phillies built a 4-1 lead for Moyer on an early home run by Ruiz and consecutive shots by Utley and Howard in the sixth. But it was the little hit that was the biggest of all.
J.C. Romero wound up with the win.
Minus Moyer, the Rays sped back to tie as B.J. Upton became the first AL player to steal three bases in a Series game.
Upton beat out an infield single to open the eighth, swiped second and third on consecutive pitches, and dashed home on a wild throw by Ruiz to make it 4-all.
Tampa Bay’s rally dampened the moment Moyer waited for his whole life. The 45-year-old lefty finally got to pitch in the World Series and threw a game that defines his career, bedeviling the Rays with his slo-mo repertoire.
“I think it exceeded every expectation or thought or dream,” Moyer said.
Moyer, already a pro before Rays stars Longoria and Upton were born, demonstrated exactly how he’s earned 246 major league victories. He struck out both All-Stars with 74 mph changeups, and made the entire lineup look foolish with tentative swings.
Moyer became the second-oldest player in Series history—Jack Quinn was 47 when he pitched for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1930—yet showed he was still spry. He belly-flopped along the first-base line to field Carl Crawford’s bunt, and flipped the ball with his glove.
And while millions of people may have switched the TV channel to watch “Saturday Night Live” open with one of their popular political skits, surely baseball fans all over were laughing at watching Moyer pitch a game for the aged.
Hit hard in two losses in the NL playoffs, Moyer left in the seventh with a 4-2 lead after an RBI grounder by Gabe Gross. He tipped his cap toward plate umpire Fieldin Culbreth and then to the crowd that gave him a rousing standing ovation.
Chad Durbin relieved and gave up Jason Bartlett’s RBI grounder that pulled the Rays within a run.
Steady rain and gusty wind threatened to postpone the first Series game at Citizens Bank Park. Fans huddled underneath the overhangs and crowded the concourses to watch No. 3 Penn State play No. 10 Ohio State.
Ruiz hit a solo home run in the second off Matt Garza that put the Phillies ahead 2-1.
Utley led off the sixth with his second home run of the Series and the slumping Howard followed with a drive into the right-field seats.
Garza, who beat Boston in Game 7 to win the MVP award of the ALCS, never seemed comfortable and kept fidgeting with the rubber.
Jimmy Rollins got his first hit of the Series, leading off the first with a single. He later scored on Utley’s groundout.
Crawford doubled off the sliding Pat Burrell’s glove in left field in the second and scored on Gross’ sacrifice fly.
Xtra, xtra: The previous latest starting time in the Series was 9:24 p.m. in 1993, also at Philadelphia, after a 72-minute rain delay. … Phillies Hall of Famer Steve Carlton threw out the ceremonial first ball. In Moyer’s major league debut with the Chicago Cubs in 1986, he beat Carlton (Associated Press - Sports).

Rays 4, Phillies 2 (World Series - Game #2)

James Shields walked slowly off the mound and doffed his cap to a cheering crowd, looking a little surprised that he’d been taken out.
No sweat—rookie reliever David Price and the rest of the Tampa Bay Rays were ready to finish the job. Big Game James had already lived up to his nickname.
Shields stymied the slumping Philadelphia Phillies and Price got the final seven outs, pitching the plucky Rays to a 4-2 victory Thursday night that tied the World Series at 1-all.
“I didn’t feel too much pressure,” Shields said. “The guys in the clubhouse were real relaxed before the game.”
After dropping the opener to ace Cole Hamels and the Phillies, the young Rays rebounded from a rare home loss and earned their first World Series win with help from a squeeze play and a checked swing.
Tampa Bay never really got a huge hit, but neither did the Phillies as Jimmy Rollins and crew fell to 1-for-28 with runners in scoring position.
“That might be one of our sloppiest games all year,” manager Charlie Manuel said. “I’m concerned about us hitting with guys on base, because it looks like at times we might be trying a little too hard. But we can fix that.”
The series shifts to Philadelphia for Game 3 on Saturday night, though rain is in the forecast. ALCS MVP Matt Garza is scheduled to pitch for Tampa Bay against 45-year-old Jamie Moyer, making his World Series debut.
“We came in here knowing it’s going to be a tight series,” Rays outfielder B.J. Upton said. “Both clubs are a lot alike.”
Tampa Bay scored on Jason Bartlett’s safety squeeze and built another rally when Rocco Baldelli walked on a checked swing that seemed to confuse players and umpires alike.
Shields threw shutout ball into the sixth, outpitching Brett Myers and working out of trouble just as Hamels did for a 3-2 win Wednesday night.
So, how exactly did a pitcher with 32 major league wins come by that catchy monicker?
“It was kind of a joke at first,” Shields said. “I ended up pitching a couple of good games in the minor leagues and they say my whole organization is calling me ‘Big Game.’ They don’t call me by my first name anymore.”
The 23-year-old Price, called up in September after he was the top pick in last year’s draft, struck out slugger Ryan Howard with two on to end the seventh.

The hard-throwing lefty gave up a pinch-hit homer to Eric Bruntlett in the eighth, then stayed on to close it out against Philadelphia’s big boppers.
Carloz Ruiz led off the ninth with a double, and a pitch from Price appeared to graze Rollins’ jersey. But it was not called a hit batter, and a frustrated Rollins soon popped out.
Ruiz scored when third baseman Evan Longoria booted Jayson Werth’s grounder for an error, but Price fanned Chase Utley and got Howard on a game-ending grounder.
“I was nervous—very,” Price said. “I usually don’t even sweat out there and my hat looks like I went swimming with it.”
Tampa Bay is 5-3 at home in the postseason after going a major league-best 57-24 during the season.
Philadelphia’s lone hit with runners in scoring position was Shane Victorino’s infield single in the fourth, and that didn’t even produce a run.
“I don’t know if we’re pressing,” Victorino said. “Maybe it seems that way. We’re just not getting the job done. We came back, we had the tying run up. We needed to get one.”
Shields usually flourishes at home, where he was 9-2 with a 2.59 ERA during the season. All four of his postseason starts have come at Tropicana Field, including a win over the Chicago White Sox in Tampa Bay’s first playoff game and two tough losses to Boston in the ALCS.
“You feel pretty comfortable when he goes out there under those circumstances,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “It’s kind of a misconception. We’re starting to play our first big games now, and he’s pitching the same now as when the big game was trying to prevent somebody else from getting to the playoffs.”
A 14-game winner during the season, Shields was pulled in the sixth after 104 pitches. Dan Wheeler retired Pedro Feliz on an inning-ending grounder with runners at the corners.
Back from two seasons derailed by injuries and mitochondrial disorder, a condition that slows muscle recovery and causes extreme fatigue, Baldelli was involved in a confusing call in the second that helped Tampa Bay make it 3-0.
He checked his swing on a full-count pitch and plate umpire Kerwin Danley immediately raised his right arm as if to call strike three. But then Danley pointed to first base for an appeal, and umpire Fieldin Culbreth signaled safe.
“It was his intention to go to first base for help on a half-swing that he had as ball four,” said Mike Port, Major League Baseball’s vice president for umpiring. “He just gave a confusing mechanic. But he had called it a ball, and it was ruled no half-swing anyway. So it was just that particular mechanic that caused confusion.”
Myers and several Phillies infielders were puzzled, along with Manuel, who took a few steps out of the dugout but didn’t argue long.
“I thought he called the guy out,” Manuel said.
With the bases loaded and two outs, Upton hit an RBI single to right. Werth made a strong throw to cut down Baldelli, who crashed into Ruiz but couldn’t dislodge the ball.
Before the next inning started, Baldelli rested on one knee in right field.
Demoted to the minors in July, Myers gave up two runs in the first after an error by Werth. Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria had RBI groundouts.
Xtra, xtra: Philadelphia’s 0-for-19 skid with runners in scoring position was the second-longest drought to start a World Series since the 1966 Los Angeles Dodgers finished 0-for-22 against Baltimore, according to the Elias Sports Bureau (Associated Press - Sports).

Phillies 3, Rays 2 (World Series - Game #1)

Ryan Howard reached into the stands, stuck his glove into a cluster of fans and caught a foul pop for a key out. Yes, Tropicana Field was filled with World Series rookies on and off the field.
The glamorous teams all eliminated, the Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays opened a most unexpected World Series on Wednesday night. Cole Hamels escaped trouble to win his fourth postseason start, Chase Utley hit a two-run homer in the first inning and the Phillies beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2.
While the City of Brotherly Love celebrated, the worst-to-first Rays might as well have been plopped into the fish tank in right-center, flopping in their first game in baseball’s ultimate event. They managed just five hits—none after the fifth inning.
“If you want to take the wind out of the sails,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said, “you shut the cowbells up and get some home runs. That will do it — except in Citizens Bank Park. If you hit enough there, they ring a bell. They ring the Liberty Bell.”
Both teams have a history of losing—the Phillies long-term and the Rays in the short run. But while the Red Sox, Cubs, Dodgers, Yankees, etc., are gone, these teams filled with young, hungry players have made it to the top.
Philadelphia will try to make it two in a row at Tropicana Field when Brett Myers pitches against James Shields in Game 2 Thursday night. The team that won the opener has captured the Series 63 of 103 times, including 10 of the last 11. But the team with home-field advantage has taken 18 of the last 22 titles.
“It’s huge,” Phillies closer Brad Lidge said. “You try and downplay it, but obviously you’re coming into a place like this, you want to make sure you get the first game, especially because you got your ace on the mound. It’s really important to do that.”
It seems the rust vs. rest debate as been around almost since, well, the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Philadelphia had six days to reflect and relax after winning the National League pennant. The Rays had two days to recover after beating Boston in Game 7 for the AL title on Sunday night.
“I don’t think it threw off our timing too much,” Utley said of the layoff. “I think tomorrow we should definitely be more back on track.”
Hamels, MVP of the NL championship series, improved to 4-0 with a 1.55 ERA this postseason. He had only a pair of 1-2-3 innings, but the composed 24-year-old left-hander allowed two runs and five hits in seven innings.
He made the extra rest sound as if it was a few extra days in bed.
“For a starter it’s almost better sometimes,” Hamels said, “just because it gives you more time to heal up.”
Ryan Madson pitched a perfect eighth. Lidge worked the ninth for his 47th save in 47 chances this year, silencing the Rays and their cowbell-clanging fans.
While Carl Crawford homered, playoff stars B.J. Upton, Evan Longoria and Carlos Pena went a combined 0-for-12, striking out five times and hitting into two double plays. Akinori Iwamura had three of his team’s five hits.
Scott Kazmir, selected two picks ahead of Hamels in the first round of the 2002 amateur draft, struggled with his control and gave up three runs, six hits and four walks in six innings.
“It wasn’t an easy night, and I felt like I had to battle every single inning,” Kazmir said.
Philadelphia could have romped but went 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 runners. Their other run even scored on an out, an RBI grounder by Carlos Ruiz.
“It’s better to come up empty with a lot of guys in scoring position than not have any at all,” Utley said.
Seeking the city’s first major title since the NBA’s 76ers in 1983, Philadelphia had six days off after beating the Los Angeles Dodgers for the NL pennant, while the Rays didn’t finish off the Boston Red Sox until Game 7 on Sunday night.
Jayson Werth walked with one out in the first and Utley, after fouling off a bunt attempt, homered on a 2-2 pitch, sending the ball into the right-field seats and becoming the 34th player to homer in his first Series at-bat.
Only 13 of Utley’s 33 homers during the regular season were against lefties, and Kazmir allowed just one homer to a left-handed batter in 131 at-bats, with Boston’s David Ortiz connecting Sept. 15.
“Fastball, middle of the plate,” Utley said. “I was just trying to put the ball into play.”
Philadelphia had a chance to pad the lead in the second following two walks, but Upton made a nifty one-hop throw to the plate on Jimmy Rollins’ fly to short center, and catcher Dioner Navarro applied the tag on Shane Victorino for the inning-ending out.
Tampa Bay loaded the bases with one out in the third on two singles around a walk. Then third baseman Pedro Feliz went to his left for an impressive pickup on Upton’s grounder and started an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play.
“Definitely the kind of momentum swing into our favor,” Hamels said. “If they can load the bases with less than two outs and not be able to score, then you definitely have the upper hand.”
Ruiz hit an RBI grounder in the fourth following Victorino’s leadoff single, but Crawford’s homer on a hanging breaking ball cut the lead to a 3-1 in the bottom half.
Iwamura had an opposite-field RBI double to left-center in the fifth, and Upton followed the foul pop that Howard came up with. Had this been at Fenway Park, the glove likely would have been at the Cask N Flagon by the final out.
“Ryan’s pretty big,” Rollins said. “Usually if you see him coming toward you, you get out of the way.”
Pena reached leading off the sixth when Howard allowed his grounder to pop off his glove and midsection for an error. But Hamels froze Pena with a pickoff throw and he was easily thrown out at second. Rays manager Joe Maddon screamed unsuccessfully for a balk call, maintaining Hamels’ foot landed too far toward the plate.
“I thought it was clearly a balk, and obviously you can’t argue a balk,” Maddon said. “You get kicked out arguing a balk. What I did was even inappropriate.”
Said Hamels: “Yeah, he was out. That’s all I can say. “
Xtra, xtra: It was the first Series game on artificial turf since 1993—the Phillies’ previous one. The only other pitchers with four wins in four postseason starts were Dave Stewart (1989), David Wells (1998) and Josh Beckett (2007) (Associated Press - Sports).

Rays 3, Red Sox 1 (ALCS - Game #7) [Rays win series 4-3]

Down to their last chance, the Tampa Bay Rays left no doubt they were World Series-worthy, after all.
Believe it: Baseball’s doormats have arrived.
Going from worst to first, the young Rays completed a stunning run to their first pennant, holding off the defending champion Boston Red Sox 3-1 Sunday night behind Matt Garza’s masterful pitching in Game 7 of the AL championship series.
“It’s unbelievable,” center fielder B.J. Upton said. “We battled a lot of adversity this year. We stuck together as a team.”
And, they showed a bit of Boston-like resolve when they needed it.
The Rays nearly let the series slip away when they blew a seven-run lead late in Game 5 and lost meekly Saturday night. But when rookie David Price struck out J.D. Drew with the bases loaded to end the eighth inning, the Rays were on their way.
Price, who didn’t make his major league debut until late September, also worked the ninth, walking Jason Bay and striking out Mark Kotsay and Jason Varitek before getting pinch-hitter Jed Lowrie ground into a game-ending force play.
Tampa Bay’s worst to first saga was the feel-good story of this season, and it probably was fitting that Price—the least experienced of the young Rays— was on the mound at the most critical point of the ALCS.
“Minimal experience, but I was not hesitant,” manager Joe Maddon said.
When it was over, players and coaches streamed out of the dugout and mobbed Price, eventually falling to the ground in a cluster that continued to grow when others began leaping on the pile.
Music blared and the crowd of 40,473 stood and cheered.
The party moved inside briefly before players returned to the field raced up and down the right field stands spraying fans with champagne before settling down for the presentation of AL championship trophy.
“It’s not what we expected to happen,” Boston slugger David Ortiz said. “You have to give them credit. They pitched well. They’ve got good hitters.”
The Rays were a 200-1 shot to win the World Series before the season started. Now, they’ll host the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 1 Wednesday night.
Garza beat Boston twice in a week and was picked as the MVP.
“As a kid I think everybody pictures this night,” he said. “Usually it’s Game 7 of the World Series but I’ll take Game 7 of the ALCS.”
Willy Aybar homered and Evan Longoria and Rocco Baldelli also drove in runs to support Garza. Acquired in an offseason trade with Minnesota, Garza limited the Red Sox to Dustin Pedroia’s first-inning home run.
Four more wins and Maddon’s bunch will become the first team to go from worst in the majors to World Series champion in just one season.
The Red Sox were hoping to win their third crown in five years.
“We didn’t get as far as we wanted,” Boston manager Terry Francona said. “We came out to win and go to the World Series and we didn’t accomplish that.”
Longoria’s fourth-inning double off Jon Lester tied it at 1-all. Baldelli’s RBI single put the Rays ahead in the fifth after Aybar doubled and Dioner Navarro reached on an infield single.
Garza took the mound for the biggest game of his life with something, perhaps cotton balls, stuffed in his ears to help drown out the noise at sold-out Tropicana Field.
The 24-year-old right-hander struck out nine before shortstop Jason Bartlett booted Alex Cora’s ground ball for an error, leading off a tense eighth.
Boston went on to load the bases when Kevin Youkilis drew a two-out walk. Price, the No. 1 pick in the 2007 draft, became the fifth Tampa Bay pitcher of the inning—quite a spot for someone who started the year in Class A.
Drew, who capped the Game 5 rally with a ninth-inning single, struck out with a check-swing on a 97 mph fastball to end the threat. Price worked around a leadoff walk in the ninth and when pinch-hitter Jed Lowrie grounded out, the celebration began.
“I wanted the ball,” Price said. “I think everybody down there in the ‘pen wanted the ball tonight.”
The Rays dropped the “Devil” from their name before the season and came out with a new identity: Gone were the laughable losers who finished last in the AL East in nine of their first 10 seasons, the snowbird specials whose quirky Tropicana Field filled with transplanted Bostonians whenever the Red Sox visited.
After splitting the first two games of the series at home, though, it was Tampa Bay that made itself at home in an opponent’s ballpark, with the Rays sending shot after shot sailing over the Green Monster. In all, the Rays outscored the Red Sox 29-13 in the three games at Fenway Park, hitting 10 home runs.
But the young Rays’ postseason inexperience showed in Game 5, when a normally reliable bullpen blew a 7-0 lead over the last three innings, allowing Boston to save its season with an 8-7 victory.
The Red Sox were the eighth team to rally from a 3-1 deficit to force Game 7 of an LCS, and they’re the only club to do it more than once. The Red Sox also battled back in 1986, 2004 and 2007, and went on to win the World Series the last two times.
With the tarps covering nearly 5,800 seats in the upper deck removed for the second straight night, more than 40,000 fans packed the domed stadium for a rematch of the starting pitchers from Game 3, won by Tampa Bay 9-1 at Fenway Park.
Many fans wore Red Sox gear and were even more noticeable when they stood and cheered as Pedroia circled the bases after lining a pitch into the left-field stands. But there would be little for the Boston faithful to cheer the rest of the night.
No team has repeated as World Series champion since the New York Yankees won three straight from 1998-2000. That mark is safe for another year.
“We played as hard as we could. Just kind of ran out of magic,” Pedroia said. “I’m proud of everybody, but it’s obviously a tough loss.”
Xtra, xtra: Rays senior adviser Don Zimmer, a former Red Sox manager who has six World Series rings, threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Ortiz said after the game that he’s not planning to have surgery on his left wrist during the offseason (Associated Press - Sports).

Red Sox 4, Rays 2 (ALCS - Game #6)

Now look who’s one win from the World Series.
All but eliminated until their stunning turnaround, the Boston Red Sox played like World Series champs from the start and beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-2 Saturday night to force a Game 7 in the AL championship series.
“It’s probably pretty appropriate. We come down to the last game, and whoever plays better gets to move on,” Boston manager Terry Francona said. “We have a lot of respect for how good they’ve played, but we also really like our ballclub.”
Slumping Jason Varitek hit a tiebreaking home run in the sixth inning as Boston evened the ALCS at 3-all. No late drama needed by the Red Sox this time— they rallied from seven runs down with only seven outs left to win Game 5.
Now Jon Lester starts for the Red Sox on Sunday night against Matt Garza in a rematch of Game 3, won by the Rays 9-1 at Fenway Park. Last year, the Red Sox trailed Cleveland 3-1 before winning three in a row, then sweeping Colorado for their second Series title in four seasons.
“It’s great to get to Game 7, to battle like this,” said Kevin Youkilis, who homered and drove in two runs. “We went out there and played like it was our last game. It was awesome.”
The young Rays, who never won more than 70 games in a season before this year, believe they’re up for the challenge.
“We’ve just got to stay positive,” pitcher James Shields said. “We’ve got one more game, and now it’s do or die, so we’re going to find out what we’re all about.”
The pennant winner hosts the World Series opener Wednesday night against the well-rested Philadelphia Phillies, who won the NL pennant over the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games.
“It’s all about how we react to the moment, and it’s a seventh game,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “It’s a great learning experience. For us to win that game would be something special for us, also. So it’s not about looking into the past. It’s about looking into the future right now.”
Red Sox ace Josh Beckett, who struggled in his first two starts of the playoffs, allowed two runs and four hits in five innings despite reduced velocity, and Hideki Okajima, Justin Masterson and Jonathan Papelbon combined for hitless relief.
“The guy fights back,” Boston slugger David Ortiz said of Beckett, who improved to 7-2 in 13 postseason games. “He’s hurting, and everyone knows that, but what he brings is something special.”
B.J. Upton tied an AL record in the first inning with his seventh home run of the postseason. After Boston went ahead 2-1, Tampa Bay tied it on Jason Bartlett’s fifth-inning homer. But the Rays didn’t get another hit, and the Red Sox improved to 9-0 in ALCS elimination games under Francona.
Varitek, the Red Sox captain, had been 0-for-14 in the series before his homer in the sixth off Shields, who allowed four runs and nine hits in 5 2-3 innings.
“He wears a `C’ on that jersey for a lot of different reasons, but none more important than how much respect everybody in that clubhouse, including players, coaches, upper management, has for him,” Beckett said.
The Red Sox, trying to become the first repeat champions since the 1998-00 Yankees, were jubilant.
“We’ll take runs any way we can get it,” Francona said. “But the way it happened, and as hard as he’s worked, it meant a lot to everybody. “
Ortiz drove in the last run charged to Shields with an RBI single off J.P. Howell to pad the lead.
Boston bounced back from a 3-1 ALCS deficit in 1986 against the Angels, then in 2004 became the first major league team to win a best-of-seven postseason series when trailing 3-0, beating the Yankees for the pennant before sweeping St. Louis in the World Series. Then came last year’s comeback.
“We know what it takes to win games,” Ortiz said. “It’s not easy. It’s not like we like to be in those situations, but I guess it’s the way destiny has us the past years that we’ve won the World Series.”
It was a strange night in different ways. The first 20 minutes of the game weren’t shown on television because TBS had an equipment failure.
And plate umpire Derryl Cousins left with a bruised collarbone after three innings, causing a 15-minute stoppage. Cousins was struck by a foul ball hit by Varitek in the second, but remained in the game until the delay. He was replaced by crew chief Tim McClelland, who had been working first base.
“The delay didn’t really bug me that much. I had just come out,” Beckett said. “I think James Shields probably had the worst end of that deal.”
Upton, who only hit nine homers in 531 regular-season at-bats, drove the ball off one of the catwalks at Tropicana Field when he homered off Beckett. Upton tied Troy Glaus (2002) with his seventh homer in a single postseason, one behind record-holders Barry Bonds (2002) and Carlos Beltran (2004).
Right after that, the television broadcast began.
Youkilis led off the second inning with his drive into the left center-field seats off Shields, then gave the Red Sox a 2-1 lead in the third when he grounded out after Dustin Pedroia walked and took third on Ortiz’s double down the right-field line.
Bartlett’s homer tied it in the fifth.
Okajima pitched two scoreless innings, and Masterson got out of a potential tight situation in the eighth. He hit Bartlett with a pitch leading off and went to a 2-0 count on Akinori Iwamura when pitching coach John Farrell visited the mound.
Papelbon struck out Iwamura, got two straight outs, and then Papelbon pitched a 1-2-3 ninth, extending his major league-record career postseason scoreless streak to 25 innings over 16 appearances.
“The important thing is we found a way to win this game,” Varitek said. “It was a big win for us.”
Xtra, xtra: Youkilis has hit safely in 12 of 13 career ALCS games. Upton has seven homers in 42 postseason at-bats after hitting nine in 531 at-bats during the regular season. Bartlett hit one homer during the regular season. Papelbon earned his third save of this postseason (Associated Press - Sports).

Red Sox 8, Rays 7 (ALCS - Game #5)

Down seven runs and running out of time, the Boston Red Sox weren’t quite ready to go away.
The defending World Series champions pulled off the biggest postseason comeback since 1929, beating the Rays 8-7 Thursday night on J.D. Drew’s two-out single in the ninth to stave off elimination in the best-of-seven AL championship series.
Fresh off the latest October rally by the comeback kings, Boston headed to Tampa Bay trailing three games to two.
“The first six innings we did nothing. They had their way with us every way possible,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “And then this place came unglued, and we’ve seen that before. But because of the situation we’re in, it just—that was pretty magical.”
Boston trailed 7-0 with two outs in the seventh, then rallied when David Ortiz’s three-run homer followed Dustin Pedroia’s RBI single against Grant Balfour. Drew hit a two-run homer in the eighth, and Coco Crisp tied it with a two-out RBI single off Dan Wheeler.
“It was pretty much the most amazing thing I’ve ever been a part of,” Crisp said, “to be down 7-0 in an elimination game and be able to come back.
Then in the ninth, Kevin Youkilis grounded to Evan Longoria with two outs, and wound up at second when the throw bounced in front of first baseman Carlos Pena. Jason Bay was intentionally walked and Drew lined a single to right off J.P. Howell over the outstretched glove of Gabe Gross to score the game-winner.
“There’s a lot of fight in that dugout, and a lot of guys knew as soon as we got some runs on the board, we could get something going,” Drew said.
The series resumes Saturday night at Tropicana Field. The winner faces Philadelphia in the World Series starting Wednesday night.
“Hopefully, there’ll be time when we can sit back and think ‘This is what got us over the hump,”’ Francona said. “But we’re still climbing.”
B.J. Upton hit a two-run homer before the first out, and Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria hit back-to-back homers for the second straight game to help stake Tampa Bay to a 7-0 lead. Scott Kazmir held Boston to two hits over six innings, never allowing a runner past second base.
“There goes Papi and there goes Drew, I mean that can happen at any time,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “We’re just going to have to go back home and get it going again. We played a great game. They just came back and beat us. That happens.”
Tampa Bay doesn’t have much time to shake off its late-inning collapse.
“If you dwell on something like that and you get your mind in a negative mode, nothing good is going to happen after that,” Maddon said.
The seven-run deficit was the largest overcome in a postseason game since Game 4 of 1929 World Series, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. In that one, the Philadelphia Athletics trailed by eight before a 10-run seventh inning powered them past the Chicago Cubs 10-8.
The Red Sox, who twice this decade have rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win the pennant and then the World Series title, have a chance to do it an unprecedented third time in five years.
After losing the previous two games at Fenway Park by a combined 22-5, Boston suddenly sparked to life.
The Red Sox fell behind the New York Yankees in the 2004 ALCS before becoming the first major league team to rally from a 3-0 postseason deficit. Once in the World Series, they swept the St. Louis Cardinals for their first title in 86 years.
Three seasons later, Boston trailed the Cleveland Indians 3-1 in the ALCS before winning three straight and sweeping Colorado in the Series for their second title in four seasons. Ortiz,
Ortiz, who had one hit and no RBIs in the series coming in, woke up.
“The big guy came through for us again,” Crisp said. “He was in a little slide, but he showed how he could come through for us.”
Xtra, xtra: The top three batters in Tampa’s order reached base 10 times…. Carl Crawford went 0-for-4 after going 5-for-5 in Game 4. Ortiz had been 1-for-17 in the series before his homer. Curt Schilling, the bloody-socked hero of the team’s angst-ending 2004 championship, threw out the ceremonial pitch—his only appearance on the Fenway mound this season. He bounced it about eight feet in front of the plate. Daisuke Matsuzaka allowed five runs in four-plus innings (Associated Press - Sports).

Rays 13, Red Sox 4 (ALCS - Game #4)

They fluttered in and rocketed out: Three more homers sent sailing over the Green Monster, and Tampa Bay was on its way to another blowout in Boston.
Suddenly, the upstart Rays are one win from their first AL pennant.
Evan Longoria hit his rookie-record fifth home run of the playoffs, and Carlos Pena and Willy Aybar also homered off aging knuckleballer Tim Wakefield on Tuesday night to give Tampa Bay a 13-4 victory over the Red Sox that left the defending champions on the brink of elimination.
“We know we’re real close now to going to the World Series,” said Carl Crawford, who tied an AL championship series record with five hits. “A lot of guys won’t say it: There’s a nice vibe right now.”
Aybar had four hits and five RBIs, and Andy Sonnanstine pitched 7 1-3 sharp innings as Tampa Bay took a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven playoff. After an off day, James Shields will have a chance to pitch the Rays to the Series when he faces Game 1 winner Daisuke Matsuzaka on Thursday night at Fenway Park.
“They’re dangerous, they play loose and have good chemistry. Sometimes it’s an advantage when there aren’t a lot of expectations,” said Red Sox pitcher Paul Byrd, who was on the Indians when they blew a 3-1 lead over Boston in last year’s ALCS. “I don’t think anybody thought we would go back to our place and get beat up like this.”
Tampa Bay had never even approached a .500 record during its first decade in the majors before edging wild-card Boston for the AL East title by two games. But the Rays were poised and powerful against a Red Sox team that has made the playoffs in five of the last six years, advancing to the ALCS four times and winning it all twice.
Facing the 42-year-old Wakefield, the oldest pitcher to start an ALCS game, the league’s newest team homered three times in the first three innings to take a 5-0 lead. The Rays scored another in the fifth and blew it open with five more in the sixth when seven straight batters reached base to make it 11-1.
“Sitting through that wasn’t a whole lot of fun,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “We’ve been on the other side. When it happens to you, you’ve got to get through it the best you can, and we’ll need to regroup as quickly as we can.”
Fans lined up for the exits after the Red Sox went down 1-2-3 in the sixth— the third inning in a row they were retired in order; TV showed horror-master Stephen King reading a book in the stands, bored.
On the field, it was twice as scary.
One night after the Rays hit four homers to beat Boston 9-1, they hit three more and totaled 14 hits against five Red Sox pitchers.
“Last night was nice,” said Crawford, who rushed back from hand surgery to be ready for the playoffs after missing most of the last two months of the regular season. “But tonight was even better.”
Wakefield, who was making his first appearance in 16 days, lasted just 2 2-3 innings, giving up five runs, including Longoria’s fifth postseason homer to break the rookie record set by Florida’s Miguel Cabrera in 2003. Red Sox reliever Justin Masterson allowed another run; Manny Delcarmen gave up five more while getting just one out; 42-year-old Mike Timlin gave up two more in the eighth.
“Right now it’s kind of contagious,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “I don’t want to see us do anything different.”
Sonnanstine retired 12 consecutive batters in all after Kevin Cash’s homer to lead off the third and make it 5-1. The Rays right-hander, who pitched 13 shutout innings against Boston in a pair of September no-decisions, allowed just two hits before David Ortiz’s leadoff triple in the seventh.
Ortiz, who had been hitless in his first 12 at-bats in the series, scored on a groundout to make it 11-2, and Boston chased Sonnanstine while adding two more in the eighth.
Xtra, xtra: Timlin made his record-tying 25th appearance in the ALCS. Longoria committed two errors at 3B on a single play in the second inning, bobbling Jason Bay’s grounder and then throwing it away. Those were the first two errors committed by the Rays in the postseason. Center fielder B.J. Upton also made an error. There were no fisticuffs between the teams that had a bench-clearing brawl in June. Masterson threw a pitch behind Longoria in the fifth. Cash became the first Red Sox player to homer in his first postseason at-bat since pitcher Jose Santiago in the opener of the 1967 World Series against St. Louis. Wakefield’s outing was the shortest postseason start by a Boston pitcher since Bronson Arroyo lasted two innings in Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS against the New York Yankees. Also that night: Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui went 5-for-6 — the last player with five hits in the ALCS before Crawford. The Red Sox lost the first three games of that series, then won the next four before sweeping St. Louis in the World Series (Associated Press - Sports).

Rays 9, Red Sox 1 (ALCS - Game #3)

B.J. Upton, Evan Longoria and the rest of the Tampa Bay Rays have quickly become a playoff monster.
Upton hit a three-run home run and Longoria also homered off a suddenly shaky Jon Lester, then Rocco Baldelli and Carlos Pena cleared the Green Monster later Monday to give the Rays a 9-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox and a 2-1 lead in the AL championship series.
Matt Garza held Boston scoreless through six innings as Tampa Bay put the defending World Series champions in a postseason hole for the first time since they overcame a 3-1 deficit in last year’s ALCS against Cleveland. Now the Rays right-hander, who thought he was sent to baseball purgatory when he was traded from Minnesota to Tampa Bay last offseason, has brought them within two wins of their first AL pennant.
“When I first got traded, yes, there was a doubt. But walking into the clubhouse in spring training, it was like, ‘We could actually pull this thing off,”’ said Garza, the only Tampa Bay pitcher to lose in the first-round series against the White Sox.
“Everybody was on that one mission, and that was to win. We want to win now. We don’t want to be the team that waits for later, we want to win now,” he said.
Andy Sonnanstine will try to win Game 4 for the Rays when he faces knuckleballer Tim Wakefield in Game 4 of the best-of-seven series on Tuesday night.
Fenway Park has batting practice baseballs older than the Rays franchise, and the 37-foot wall that looms over left field is the signature feature of the major leagues’ oldest ballpark. But Tampa Bay, which climbed past the Yankees and Red Sox in the regular season, treated the Monster like just another old-fashioned obstacle to overcome.
Upton, whose shallow sacrifice fly in the 11th inning won Game 2, hit a three-run homer in the third that sailed completely out of the park. Longoria added a solo shot later in the third—also off Lester, who pitched a no-hitter at Fenway in May and was 11-1 at home this year.
Baldelli added on a three-run shot in the eighth and Pena made it 9-1 in the ninth, both off Paul Byrd. A lifetime Ray, Baldelli had never appeared in the postseason before; Pena is well-traveled—this is his fifth team, including the Red Sox—but he somehow managed to avoid appearing in a playoff game until arriving in Tampa Bay.
The four homers in a game tied the ALCS home run record last matched by Boston in Game 2 against Tampa Bay on Saturday.
“Solo home runs are good, but three-run homers mean so much more. It put us up 4-0 and gave us all the confidence in the world,” said Upton, who has five homers in the playoffs after hitting just nine during the regular season. “We feel the sky’s the limit for us all year. To beat (Lester), and to beat him at Fenway, hopefully it’ll have a snowball effect.”
The Rays also hit hard on the basepaths. Carl Crawford bowled over Boston catcher Jason Varitek on a play at the plate. There was no immediate reprisal in a matchup between teams that have tangled in the past.
The Red Sox put two on with nobody out in the seventh to chase Garza, then J.P. Howell gave up a sacrifice fly. Howell pitched two innings and Edwin Jackson closed out the victory.
Lester, who hadn’t allowed an earned run in four previous postseason outings — including last year’s World Series clincher against Colorado—gave up four earned runs on eight hits in 5 2-3 innings. He gave up an unearned run on Varitek’s passed ball in the second, then caused his own problems in the third.
“I think some people come to expect you to go out there every single day and be a robot and do it,” outfielder Jason Bay said. “Unfortunately, that’s not the case.”
Jason Bartlett singled and Akinori Iwamura doubled off the Monster before Upton hit a towering shot that cleared the wall and the Monster Seats atop it— his fifth homer of the playoffs. One out later, Longoria hit his fourth home run of the postseason, tying a rookie record set by Miguel Cabrera in 2003.
“They come equipped with all the bells and whistles,” manager Joe Maddon said. “They feel like they belong here, and that’s a big reason why they’ve been able to perform with calm and permit everybody see how good they are. … Knowing them on a daily basis, it does not surprise me.”
Xtra, xtra: Lester needed just four pitches to get through the first inning, then he walked Longoria to lead off the second. After not allowing a leadoff runner in his previous two playoff starts, he let the leadoff man on in three consecutive innings. Boston SS Alex Cora and RF Baldelli started Monday for the first time in the AL championship series. Upton has hit safely in six consecutive playoff games. RHP Paul Byrd made his first relief appearance since the 2004 playoffs, when he was with Atlanta. Upton hit three homers against Chicago in the first round and one against Boston on Saturday. Longoria also homered in Game 2, when the upstart Rays evened the series (Associated Press - Sports).

Rays 9, Red Sox 8 [11 innings] (ALCS - Game #2)

B.J. Upton and the Tampa Bay Rays won a game of home run derby with a shallow fly ball.
Pinch-runner Fernando Perez dashed home on Upton’s sacrifice fly in the 11th inning and the Rays outlasted the Boston Red Sox 9-8 early Sunday, evening the AL championship series at one game each.
The teams combined for seven home runs, tying a postseason record. The Rays wound up winning a game that lasted 5 hours, 27 minutes when the speedy Perez tagged up on Upton’s one-out fly and beat right fielder J.D. Drew’s throw home.
“Like I said, in a straight-up race, I’ve got him over Seabiscuit,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “I’m dating myself a bit. I’m sorry, but that’s the first horse that came to my mind.”
The series shifts to Fenway Park for Game 3 Monday, with left-hander Jon Lester pitching for Boston against Matt Garza.
“We did not want to go to Boston down 0-2,” said Evan Longoria, who homered for Tampa Bay. “It’s 1:30 in the morning and we pulled it out.”
Dustin Pedroia homered twice for Boston, and scored his fourth run on a wild pitch in the eighth that made it 8-all.
Red Sox reliever Mike Timlin walked Dioner Navarro and Ben Zobrist to begin the 11th and Jason Bartlett grounded out, moving runners to second and third, and Akinori Iwamura was intentionally walked.
Upton, who had homered earlier, followed with his fly ball down the right-field line.
“The main thing there is not to strike out,” Upton said.
Drew settled under the ball, but rushed and a two-hop throw up the third-base line. Perez scored easily, showing off his best asset—he stole 43 bases in Triple-A this season, and went 5-for-5 on steal tries with Tampa Bay.
Another rookie, David Price, earned the win. He entered with a runner on first and one out in the 11th and walked Drew, but struck out Mark Kotsay and retired Coco Crisp on a grounder.
“It’s been like that all year, someone stepping up,” Longoria said. “There’s different heroes every day.”
Jonathan Papelbon pitched 1 2-3 scoreless innings, getting the defending World Series champion Red Sox to the 11th. He extended his career postseason scoreless streak to a major league-record 22 innings over 14 appearances, despite getting struck by Carl Crawford’s liner.
Cliff Floyd, Longoria and Upton homered for Tampa Bay off struggling Josh Beckett. The wild-card Red Sox homered three times in the fifth inning, with Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis connecting off Scott Kazmir and Jason Bay tagging Grant Balfour.
“It’s very frustrating any time you get eight runs for you and you can’t win the game,” Beckett said.
After Boston won the ALCS opener 2-0, the teams came out swinging for the fences. All seven homers came in the first five innings.
The Red Sox and Ray matched the postseason record for homers set in the 1989 World Series and tied in the NLCS in 2003 and 2006.
Down 8-6, the Red Sox rallied within a run in the sixth on an RBI single by Bay.
Pedroia led off the eighth with a single against Chad Bradford and reliever Trever Miller walked David Ortiz.
Dan Wheeler took over and got Youkilis to ground into a double play. With Bay at the plate, Wheeler threw a pitch over the glove of Navarro that went to the backstop. The All-Star catcher retrieved the carom, but made an off-target, underhand toss to Wheeler covering the plate that allowed Pedroia to score.
Boston threatened again in the ninth when Crisp hit a two-out double that sailed over Upton’s head in center field. Wheeler struck out Jacoby Ellsbury to end the inning.
Longoria, the All-Star rookie who homered twice in his playoff debut against the Chicago White Sox, snapped an 0-for-13 drought with a two-run homer in the first inning. Upton launched a solo shot in the third and Floyd homered in the fourth for Tampa Bay.
After Pedroia, Youkilis and Bay homered to put the Red Sox ahead 6-5 in the fifth, the Rays answered with three runs in the bottom half off Beckett, who allowed eight runs and nine hits in 4 1-3 innings.
A year after becoming the first Red Sox pitcher to win four games in the same postseason, the big right-hander has struggled through the two shortest playoff starts of his career. He allowed four runs on nine hits in five innings against the Los Angeles Angels in Game 3 of the ALDS.
“We wanted Beckett to get through that fifth and set up our bullpen, and it didn’t work,” Boston manager Terry Francona said.
Carlos Pena’s RBI single and Longoria’s run-scoring double finished the Boston starter. Crawford’s single on reliever Javier Lopez’s first pitch drove in Longoria to make it 8-6.
Bay, also had a two-run double in the first, was 3-for-5 with four RBIs for the Red Sox. Youkilis also had three hits and has now hit safely all nine of his career ALCS games.
Despite having their team-record six-game postseason road winning streak snapped, the Red Sox were happy to be returning to Fenway Park with the series tied 1-all.
Xtra, xtra: Kazmir allowed five runs and six hits in 4 1-3 innings. Youkilis’ hitting streak in the ALCS is the longest to start a career since Darin Erstad hit safely in his first nine games for the Angels from 2002-05. Pedroia was 2-for-21 in the postseason before homering off Kazmir in the third and fifth innings. Including playoffs, he’s 16-for-28 with three home runs lifetime against the Rays ace. The Red Sox also hit three home runs in an inning at Cleveland in Game 4 of last year’s ALCS (Associated Press - Sports).

Red Sox 2, Rays 0 (ALCS - Game #1)

Daisuke Matsuzaka’s brilliant escape act bewildered Tampa Bay and put the Boston Red Sox on top in the AL championship series.
Matsuzaka took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning and worked out of trouble all game, pitching the defending World Series champions past the Rays 2-0 Friday night in the ALCS opener.
Dice-K wiggled out of trouble in the first and seventh, then got help from his bullpen to rebuff one more threat in the eighth as the Red Sox taught the young Rays about dominant postseason pitching.
“It’s amazing. We always joke how he gets out of these innings,” Boston’s Kevin Youkilis said. “He’ll have bases-loaded, nobody out; or first and third, nobody out, and he gets out of jams. We wish he wouldn’t put himself in those jams, but it’s amazing how he does it and shows how great of a pitcher he is.”
Jed Lowrie snapped a scoreless tie in the fifth with a sacrifice fly against James Shields, and Youkilis drove home another run with a seventh-inning double off left fielder Carl Crawford’s glove as the playoff-savvy Red Sox beat baseball’s best home team on its own turf.
Jonathan Papelbon closed out Boston’s team-record sixth straight postseason road win. Now the upstart Rays, who held off the Red Sox for the AL East title, are the ones doing the chasing.
Game 2 is Saturday night at Tropicana Field, with Josh Beckett pitching for Boston against All-Star Scott Kazmir.
“This is probably how it’s going to be,” Youkilis said. “It’s going to be a battle every game.”
Crawford singled leading off the seventh for Tampa Bay’s first hit and raced to third when Cliff Floyd followed with a single. But Dice-K, who was unbeaten on the road this season, was equal to the task.
Dioner Navarro flied to shallow left, Matsuzaka fanned Gabe Gross for the last of his nine strikeouts and Jason Bartlett grounded into a force play to end the threat.
“You have to tip your cap to Dice-K and the way he got out of jams,” Shields said. “He was the better man tonight.”
The Rays, who thrived on timely hitting in winning a franchise-record 97 games this season, missed another opportunity in the eighth after Matsuzaka, who allowed four hits in seven-plus innings, gave up two more singles.
Hideki Okajima relieved and Carlos Pena flied out on a 3-0 pitch. Justin Masterson took over and got All-Star rookie Evan Longoria to ground into a double play.
“Listen, it happens,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “When you’re facing very good pitching at this time of the year, they can stifle you even with nobody out. We can do the same thing to them.”
Papelbon pitched the ninth for Boston, extending his career postseason scoreless streak to a major league-record 20 2-3 innings over 13 appearances. Joe Niekro held the old mark of 20 scoreless innings.
The Rays finished 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position. They wasted a big chance in the first, too, after Matsuzaka walked the bases loaded.
“He doesn’t give in,” Boston manager Terry Francona said. “He throws all his pitches, so hitters have to respect, even in tight situations, he doesn’t become a one-pitch pitcher.”
Much was made before the best-of-seven series about previous scuffles between the teams, a history both sides tried to play down. But the opener did turn a bit testy in the eighth when Grant Balfour hit J.D. Drew in the right shoulder with a high fastball, prompting a few Red Sox to holler from the bench.
Jason Bay drew a leadoff walk in the fifth and went to third when Mark Kotsay doubled down the left-field line for the third hit off Shields, who also started Game 1 for Tampa Bay in its first-round playoff series against the Chicago White Sox.
Lowrie, who drove in the winning run with a ninth-inning single in Boston’s division series-clinching victory over the Los Angeles Angels, followed with a sacrifice fly.
Shields avoided further damage when Jason Varitek grounded to second and Jacoby Ellsbury popped to shortstop Bartlett, who made an over-the-head catch in shallow center field.
“I’m not discouraged in any way,” Maddon said. “We played well, and we just have to hit better tomorrow, that’s it.”
The Rays breezed into the ALCS by beating the White Sox in their first-ever playoff series, while the Red Sox are playing for the pennant for the fourth time in six years after beating the Angels in the other ALDS.
With fans clanging cowbells and standing and cheering every strike, Shields fanned Ellsbury to start the game, then quickly slipped into a tight spot when Dustin Pedroia walked on a 3-2 pitch and Youkilis hit a drive to right that landed just inside the line and bounced over a short fence in foul territory for a ground-rule double.
Pedroia, who would have scored easily if the ball had not gone into the stands, rounded third and headed home where plate umpire Tim McClelland waited a few feet up the line. Shields escaped by striking out Drew.
Matsuzaka, 18-3 overall, also got off to a shaky start, walking leadoff man Akinori Iwamura and two of the next four batters to load the bases with two outs.
Opponents were hitless in 14 at-bats against the right-hander with the bases loaded during the regular season, and he got out of another jam by retiring Floyd.
“He just missed on a few pitches,” Varitek said of the rocky first. “He did settle into his rhythm and found his arm slot more.”
Tampa Bay won the season series between the AL East rivals 10-8, including eight of nine at Tropicana Field.
The Red Sox were 7-2 against the Rays at Fenway Park. Both of Tampa Bay’s victories there came during a 10-day, confidence-building stretch in which the Rays took four of six from the World Series champions to hang onto first place.
Floyd, one of veterans brought in last winter to provide leadership in Tampa Bay’s clubhouse, expects the talented Rays to rebound.
“We’ve come back from much worse situations than this,” he said. “That’s a good team. You’ve got to make sure that you capitalize when you have chances. When you don’t, you’re going to settle into an unfortunate situation like this.”
Xtra, xtra: Boston hasn’t lost on the road in the postseason since losing at Cleveland in Game 4 of the 2007 ALCS. Since becoming the second player in major league history to homer in his first two playoff at-bats, Longoria is 2-for-14 with eight strikeouts. One of those hits also came in Tampa Bay’s Game 1 victory over Chicago in the ALDS. Youkilis was 0-for-17 lifetime against Shields before his first-inning double (Associated Press - Sports).

Rays 6, White Sox 2 (ALDS - Game #4) [Rays win series 3-1]

They rushed toward the mound, these remarkable Rays, and immediately formed a circle. Jumping together like fraternity brothers, they resembled party regulars in the postseason.
Worst in the majors last year, Tampa Bay will play for a spot in the World Series.
“It means everything. We’ve been at the bottom of the barrel for so long,” B.J. Upton said Monday after homering twice in a 6-2 win over Chicago that clinched their AL playoff. “I think there was a point in time where people didn’t even know who we were.”
They do now, for sure.
Andy Sonnanstine pitched 5 2-3 solid innings and manager Joe Maddon’s surprising Rays won 3-1 in the best-of-five series—their first trip to the postseason. Next up, they’ll host wild-card Boston in Game 1 of the AL championship series Friday night.
Ray-markable!
“We feel like we belong and it’s showing right now,” Upton said.
They want more, too. So why stop now?
“Like Carlos (Pena) said, we’re kind of a fraternity. And we stick together at all times no matter what happens,” Upton said. “As long as we keep that attitude and continue playing as a team, and doing the little things to win, I don’t think there’s any reason why we can’t win this whole thing.”
After staving off elimination several times and winning a tiebreaker for the AL Central title, the White Sox were finally knocked out.
The loss dashed Chicago’s hope for a championship—days ago, local fans were thinking the Cubs and White Sox might meet in a Windy City Classic. But the Cubs got swept by the Dodgers and now both teams are done.
“They played better than us. There’s no doubt. They pitched better. They execute better. They got big hits,” White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. “They really did a tremendous job.”
Upton, the game’s second batter, homered to left-center to put the Rays ahead. He went deep again in the third, driving a full-count pitch from Gavin Floyd to center, and the confident Rays had a two-run cushion.
Tampa Bay, which never won more than 70 games during its 10 previous seasons, went from 96 losses last year to 97 wins and passed the big-spending Red Sox and New York Yankees in the AL East.
“It’s good for baseball for a team like Tampa to win,” White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf said. “It’s too bad they had to beat us, but it’s good for the game.”
No longer bedeviled, the Rays won all year with young talent and improved pitching. Sonnanstine, who pitched a three-hit shutout against the White Sox at Tropicana Field in April, reversed a late-season slide that saw him go winless in his final seven starts.
He allowed two runs and three hits before J.P Howell relieved. Grant Balfour completed the four-hitter, striking out midseason addition Ken Griffey Jr. to end it.
“Obviously, this is an incredible accomplishment and we’re going to take tonight and really enjoy it, but when you are mired in the day-to-day it’s hard to step back and appreciate what we’ve accomplished this year,” Rays general manager Andrew Friedman said. “We’re focused on having two more celebrations.”
Upton, who hit nine homers in 531 at-bats during the regular season, also homered in Sunday’s 5-3 loss. Benched by Maddon during the season for not hustling, the talented 24-year-old’s power display came against a team that relied on homers all year and led the majors in long balls.
“B.J.’s special,” Maddon said. “He’s very capable of those types of games.”
Tampa Bay increased the lead to 4-0 in the fourth when Carl Crawford walked and scored as veteran Cliff Floyd, a Chicago native, doubled to left. Dioner Navarro followed with an RBI single to finish Floyd.
Paul Konerko hit a solo homer for the White Sox in the bottom half and the white towel-waving crowd dressed in black had a reason to get excited. But Tampa Bay struck right back in the fifth against Clayton Richard as Akinori Iwamura singled and scored on Pena’s single that made it 5-1.
Jermaine Dye hit a solo home run in the sixth to finish Sonnanstine.
“Hats off to him,” Upton said. “He threw a great game when we needed it.”
Tampa Bay kept adding on and Pena hit his second RBI single in the seventh— after the White Sox intentionally walked Upton. Guillen, apparently upset when a close pitch from Matt Thornton to Pena was called a ball, had a conversation with plate umpire Jeff Kellogg as he headed back to the dugout after a trip to the mound.
The White Sox defeated Cleveland on the final Sunday of the season to get to a makeup game with Detroit the following day. They beat the Tigers and then Minnesota, 1-0.
After losing the first two games of this series at Tropicana Field despite leading in both, the White Sox came back home to win Sunday. And they were hoping for another three-game winning streak—but the Rays were too good.
“When you have to play playoff baseball the last two weeks of the regular season, it’s just so hard to get over that first hump,” Konerko said. “We just ran out of gas.”
And now Maddon, who likes fashionable eye wear, fine wines, good books and inspirational slogans, has pushed a decade-long loser onto the doorstep of a pennant.
“We all came together and said we’re going to play team ball,” Upton said. “That’s what we do, day in and day out.”
Earlier in the week, Maddon spotted some fans on his way to U.S. Cellular Field wearing “retro Devil Rays stuff.” He’ll be looking for even more signs of the team’s new popularity when he honeymoons in Europe next month.
“My goal is to see someone walking around either Rome or, you know, Barcelona or somewhere with Rays gear on,” he added, promising to photograph it.
Maddon pointed to the Rays’ ability to bounce back after losing their final seven games before the All-Star break as a big test. And he hasn’t spent a lot of time reflecting on how he has taken a team that had 10 straight losing season — with at least 91 losses in each of those years—to the playoffs.
But he was enjoying the way his team reached and then recognized its achievement.
“Our guys are really good celebrators by the way. Very proud of them in that regard,” Maddon said.
“You got to go for it. The one thing I told our players post All-Star break is to treat this situation with respect. And they have. We have. In other words, you are not going to be in this situation on an annual basis.”
Xtra, xtra: Rays RF Gabe Gross made a nice leaping catch at the fence in the first to rob A.J. Pierzynski of an extra-base hit, maybe even a homer (Associated Press - Sports).

White Sox 5, Rays 3 (ALDS - Game #3)

Thanks to John Danks and the White Sox, Chicago still has one team standing.
For the second time in less than a week, Danks pitched a strong game to save the season as the White Sox beat Tampa Bay 5-3 Sunday and trimmed the Rays’ lead in the opening-round AL playoff series to 2-1.
“If Danks loses in either game he pitches, we’re not here right now,” manager Ozzie Guillen said.
Game 4 in the best-of-five matchup is Monday in Chicago, with Gavin Floyd facing Tampa Bay’s Andy Sonnanstine.
“We’re going to put a lot of pressure on them,” Guillen added.
Less than 24 hours after the Cubs were swept out of the playoffs by the Dodgers, dashing Chicago’s hopes for a crosstown World Series, the White Sox avoided elimination before a black-shirted, white towel-waving crowd of 40,142 in their home park.
As for that other team in Chicago?
“I’m just trying to win one game and not get swept. I could care less about the Cubs,” Guillen said, adding he sent a text message to Cubs pitcher and fellow Venezuelan Carlos Zambrano, telling him to keep his head up.
Danks, who beat Minnesota 1-0 last Tuesday in the tiebreaker for the AL Central title, kept his poise and shut down the Rays for 6 2-3 innings.
“I was more nervous for Minnesota than I was this game,” Danks said. “Obviously, the same things were on the line. I was trying to stay within myself and A.J. (Pierzynski) did a good job of keeping me under control. It worked out all right.”
The 23-year-old lefty gave up five hits and a run before B.J. Upton hit a long, two-run homer with two outs in the seventh that made it 5-3.
After a single by Carlos Pena, Octavio Dotel threw a third strike past Evan Longoria, who said the loss did little to dampen the Rays’ confidence.
“I don’t think this clubhouse believes that we lost any momentum,” Longoria said. “It’s one loss. We’re still in the driver’s seat as far as I’m concerned.”
Bobby Jenks pitched the ninth, striking out Pena with a nasty curveball with a runner on for his fifth postseason save. He had four in 2005, including two in the World Series victory over Houston.
The Rays are only the second team in major league history—first in the AL — to make the postseason after having the worst record in the majors the previous season. Tampa Bay went from 96 losses to 97 victories and was trying to become the fifth team to sweep its first postseason series.
After the Rays won 6-4 and 6-2 at home, the White Sox were revived at U.S. Cellular Field, where they went 54-28 this season.
“To think you are going to waltz through this whole thing is not a good thought. It’s very unreasonable,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “It’s a bad assumption to think you are going to come in and beat up on them.”
Matt Garza, pitching on eight days’ rest, was popping his fastball in the mid-90s (mph) and trying to keep the homer-reliant White Sox off balance by changing speeds. Chicago caught up with the 24-year-old righty in the fourth.
Jim Thome opened with a double off the center-field fence, Paul Konerko walked and Ken Griffey Jr. hit a sharp single that loaded the bases.
Alexei Ramirez, who hit a record four grand slams as a rookie this season, hit a sacrifice fly to center for a 2-1 lead, and Konerko and Griffey alertly moved up a base. DeWayne Wise followed with a two-run, opposite-field double to left.
The base running from the veterans gave the White Sox a lift.
“To be honest, I thought Griffey cheated. I never thought he went back to the bag,” Guillen said. “That was a big, big play for us in that inning. Huge. It got everybody excited in the dugout, seeing those guys play the game the way it should be played.”
Wise, who hit a three-run homer in the opener at Tropicana Field, was designated for assignment by Chicago on May 31. But the White Sox brought him back from the minors in June and he’s received increased playing time since Carlos Quentin went down with a broken wrist Sept. 1.
Since his career began in 1997, the 31-year-old Wise has played in only 240 regular-season major league games and another 935 in the minors.
“It’s been unbelievable,” Wise said. “I couldn’t find a job, and to be where I am right now.”
Griffey had two singles. After he walked in the sixth, he was replaced by younger and faster Brian Anderson, who stole second and moved up on an infield out when Longoria made a nice play from behind third base on Ramirez’s grounder.
Wise grounded out, but Juan Uribe delivered another two-out single and the White Sox were up 5-1.
Garza lasted six innings, allowing seven hits and five runs.
Akinori Iwamura, who hit a two-run homer off Mark Buehrle in Game 2, gave the Rays a 1-0 lead in the second with an RBI infield single to first, beating Danks to the bag.
Chicago tied it in the third when Wise worked a leadoff walk, stole second and Pierzynski delivered a two-out RBI single to center.
“Guys are still playing cards up to 30 minutes before the game and laughing and having a good time,” Danks said about the way the White Sox have dealt with elimination games. They had to win three straight just to make the playoffs.
“Guys really just try to approach it like it’s a game in June. I think that helps take the pressure off of us a little bit,” he added.
Xtra, xtra: Both C Dioner Navarro and Garza tried to shoo away a bothersome pigeon that landed between the mound and plate in the second inning. White Sox reliever Matt Thornton went to tag Tampa Bay’s Willy Aybar in the eighth. After the two had a collision up the first-base line, they bumped fists to show there were no hard feelings. Rain wiped out most of the Rays’ pregame batting practice about 90 minutes before the start. It kept raining and delayed the start of the game by 35 minutes. Pena, who left Game 1 after two innings and missed Game 2 because of a scratched cornea, returned to the Rays’ lineup and had two hits (Associated Press - Sports).

Rays 6, White Sox 2 (ALDS - Game #2)

Young, resilient and a victory away from the American League championship series. The Rays are breezing through the playoffs, much as they did during the regular season.
All-Star Scott Kazmir settled down after a shaky start, Akinori Iwamura hit a go-ahead, two-run homer and the AL East champions beat the Chicago White Sox 6-2 Friday night for a 2-0 lead in their first-round playoff series.
“This is just awesome,” said Rocco Baldelli, who singled in a run.
Giving many fans a close-up look of the formula that transformed Tampa Bay from a last-place team to a power, the Rays rallied for the second straight day and remained undefeated in their young postseason history.
“I like the attitude. I like the way we’re going about our business,” manager Joe Maddon said.
The Rays go for a sweep when the series resumes Sunday in Chicago. Tampa Bay’s Matt Garza (11-9) faces John Danks (12-9), trying to seal a matchup against World Series champion Boston or the Los Angeles Angels in the next round.
“We’re a relaxed bunch,” Baldelli said. “We chill out in the clubhouse. We have fun. That’s what got us here.”
Of the 35 teams to fall behind 2-0 in the division series before this year, just five have come back to advance, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
But the Rays, who won 97 games this year after finishing with the worst record in the majors a year ago, aren’t taking anything for granted.
“These are the Chicago White Sox. They’re a veteran team. They can come back and win three easy if you let them,” pitcher J.P. Howell said. “We gotta go like we have been.”
It’s been a bleak October for both Chicago teams. The Cubs lost their first two NL playoff games at home to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“We’re against the wall,” White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. “We’ve got to fight like a cat, and now it’s a must-win game.”
Chicago started quickly, scoring twice in the first on Jim Thome’s RBI single and Alexei Ramirez’s sacrifice fly, but Kazmir struck out Juan Uribe with the bases loaded to end the inning after three straight foul balls.
Dioner Navarro’s run-scoring single off Mark Buehrle in the second began the comeback following a two-base throwing error by Ramirez at second. Iwamura gave Tampa Bay a 3-2 lead with a drive into the left-center field stands off Buehrle in the fifth.
“I knew it was gone,” Iwamura said.
The Rays added three runs in the eighth, when B.J. Upton tripled and scored on Carl Crawford’s single, which chased Buehrle. Baldelli’s run-scoring single against Octavio Dotel made it 5-2, and Navarro followed with a RBI double off Matt Thornton.
At 24, Kazmir is the youngest member of Tampa Bay’s rotation and already the franchise’s career victories leader. But high pitch counts also have been an issue for the two-time All-Star, who threw 37 in the first inning.
“It was a battle the whole time,” Kazmir said. “It was just me not really trusting myself.”
He hit Orlando Cabrera with a pitch, walked Nick Swisher and gave up a single to Jermaine Dye that loaded the bases with no outs in the first—hardly the start Kazmir was looking for after giving up four homers in two of his last three regular-season outings.
“Be patient. That was my thought,” Maddon said. “It’s really important that we get him going. … If he was able to get through that, I thought he might be able to settle in; and he did.”
Chicago threatened again in the second and fourth but couldn’t score. The White Sox stranded eight runners through five innings, allowing the Rays to stay close until Iwamura’s opposite-field homer put Tampa Bay ahead.
The sellout crowd of 35,257 at Tropicana Field stood and chanted “Aki! Aki! Aki!” until Iwamura poked his head out of the dugout for a curtain call. He homered once in 192 at-bats against left-handed pitching during the regular season.
Kazmir allowed two runs and eight hits in 5 1-3 innings, leaving after Uribe’s leadoff single and a sacrifice bunt in the sixth. Maddon brought in Grant Balfour to face Orlando Cabrera, who had a heated exchange with the Rays reliever before striking out in a crucial situation during Tampa Bay’s 6-4 win in Game 1.
Balfour got the better of Cabrera again, but this time without the dramatics of Thursday when the players shouted at each other after Balfour said something to himself on the mound and the White Sox shortstop mistakenly thought he was talking to him.
Cabrera grounded to second base, moving Uribe to third, before Balfour escaped the jam by getting Swisher on a flyout.
Tampa Bay’s bullpen worked 3 2-3 scoreless innings, with J.P. Howell and Chad Bradford following Balfour.
“They’re here for a reason,” Guillen said. “They’re here because they can pitch and they catch the ball. They will take any little thing and take advantage of their speed and they don’t strike out much. When you have that combination … you can be anything in the big leagues.”
Xtra, xtra: Thome, in the playoffs for the first time since 2001 when he was with Cleveland, was 0-for-13 against Kazmir before his RBI single. He’s driven in 37 runs in 57 postseason games. U.S. Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger threw out the ceremonial first pitch. The Rays played without slugger Carlos Pena, who had slightly blurred vision in his left eye. He scratched his cornea at home Wednesday and was removed from Game 1 after two innings (Associated Press - Sports).