09/17/2008 11:45 PM ET
Aybar leads way in Rays' rout
Three early homers chase Sox's Wakefield in series clincher
By Bill Chastain / MLB.com
ST. PETERSBURG -- Years from now, there's a good chance the Rays will look
back on the just-completed series with the Red Sox and fondly remember how
they made their bones.
The Rays topped off their biggest series of the season Wednesday night with a
10-3 win over the Red Sox in front of a sellout crowd of 36,048 at Tropicana
Field.
By winning, the Rays took two out of three in their final series of the
season against the Red Sox, earning bragging rights against their American
League East rival by winning 10 of the 18 games they played this season.
"What has happened here says a lot about this team," Carlos Pena said. "That
was a tough loss for us [Monday night], but it was just another loss,
nevertheless, so we came back, kept on playing our game and won this series.
That says a lot about the character of this ballclub."
The Rays pushed their lead to two games over the Red Sox and the Rays' magic
number to win the American League East is now at 10, meaning any combination
of Rays wins and Red Sox losses adding up to 10 will result in the Rays'
first division championship. In addition, their magic number to clinch a
playoff spot is just three.
With the win, the Rays became the sixth team in MLB history to win 90 games
immediately following a stretch of at least 10 consecutive losing seasons.
Pundits figured that once September rolled around, the Rays might crumble
despite owning a 5 1/2-game lead over the second-place Red Sox. Initially,
the forecast looked prophetic. The Rays lost five of the first six games they
played in September before recovering to take two out of three against the
Red Sox at Fenway Park. Then they lost two straight to the Yankees before
getting beat by the Red Sox, 13-5, Monday night and allowing the Red Sox to
join them in first place.
Never a team to quit all season, the Rays fought back with a 2-1 walk-off win
Tuesday night to again take a one-game lead over the Red Sox, which seemed to
be a good thing since a reckoning appeared to be on the horizon with Tim
Wakefield starting for the Red Sox on Wednesday night.
Teams to win 90 games following a stretch of at least 10 consecutive losing
seasons
Year Team
1912 Washington Senators
1914 Boston Braves
1956 Cincinnati Reds
1979 Montreal Expos
2006 Detroit Tigers
2008 Tampa Bay Rays
Wakefield long ago staked claims on Tropicana Field, a building many felt the
Red Sox knuckleballer owned. Time and again he validated the old saying that
trying to hit a knuckleball was akin to eating soup with a fork. Entering
Wednesday night's start, Wakefield had a 9-2 record with a 2.45 ERA in 22
career appearances at Tropicana Field. Based on that success, Rays manager
Joe Maddon embraced a favorite philosophy that says insanity is continuing to
do the same thing over and over when it doesn't work.
So Maddon decided not to start left-handed-hitting Cliff Floyd against the
right-hander. After all, Floyd had just one hit in 11 career at-bats against
Wakefield and, to date, Willy Aybar had never faced him. Thus, the
switch-hitting Aybar got the start at DH and validated Maddon's hunch with a
two-run homer -- hitting right-handed instead of lefty against the
right-hander -- in his first at-bat to put the Rays up 3-2.
"We were joking around in the dugout before he hit the home run," Pena said.
"A popular game in the Dominican Republic is to hit the bottlecaps with the
sticks. So I'm like, 'Hey man, Willy's played a lot of bottlecaps with
sticks. It's a good matchup here.'
Rays vs. Red Sox in 2008
Date Result WP LP Site
4/25 TB, 5-4 (11) Dohmann Timlin Tropicana Field
4/26 TB, 2-1 Dohmann Buchholz Tropicana Field
4/27 TB, 3-0 Shields Beckett Tropicana Field
5/2 BOS, 7-3 Buchholz Jackson Fenway Park
5/3 BOS, 12-4 Beckett Shields Fenway Park
5/4 BOS, 7-3 Lester Kazmir Fenway Park
6/3 BOS, 7-4 Masterson Garza Fenway Park
6/4 BOS, 5-1 Beckett Jackson Fenway Park
6/5 BOS, 7-1 Lester Shields Fenway Park
6/30 TB, 5-4 Shields Masterson Tropicana Field
7/1 TB, 3-1 Garza Wakefield Tropicana Field
7/2 TB, 7-6 Glover Hansen Tropicana Field
9/8 BOS, 3-0 Lester Jackson Fenway Park
9/9 TB, 5-4 Wheeler Papelbon Fenway Park
9/10 TB, 4-2 (14) Miller Timlin Fenway Park
9/15 TB, 13-5 Matsuzaka Kazmir Tropicana Field
9/16 TB, 2-1 Wheeler Masterson Tropicana Field
9/17 TB, 10-3 Balfour Wakefield Tropicana Field
"That was huge because we came back immediately after they scored those two
runs [in the top of the first]. We were able to put something on the board
immediately and go ahead at the bottom half of that inning. That was big for
us and Willy just came out big."
Wakefield's knuckler began to resemble a pinata at a kid's birthday party and
every Rays player seemed to have a turn whaling away with the broomstick.
Gabe Gross connected for his 13th home run of the season with one out in the
second and Fernando Perez followed with his second home run of the season --
like Aybar, he also hit right-handed even though he is a switch-hitter -- to
put the Rays up 5-2. Boston manager Terry Francona finally pulled the plug on
Wakefield after Evan Longoria doubled to left with one out in the third.
"We've gotten so many good games out of him," Francona said. "He threw some
good pitches. I thought their approach was pretty good. ... And then he left
a few up and they started whacking the ball pretty good."
Meanwhile, Matt Garza started for the Rays on three days' rest, and had it
not been for Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, he might have lasted long enough to
qualify for the win. But by the time Ortiz came to the plate in the fifth
with two on and two out, he already had a two-run homer and a solo blast, so
Maddon went to the bullpen and Grant Balfour.
Fans of the game were then treated to a mano-a-mano contest between the
hard-throwing Balfour and the equally hard-swinging Ortiz, who turned on the
fan twice and missed before finally sending a deep fly to center field. This
time it stayed in the ballpark for the third out.
"It was a great move [bringing in Balfour]," Garza said. "At the point it
happened, I didn't like [the move]. As a player, though, you know what's best
for the team."
Garza did not get a win, but he scored points in the clubhouse after taking
one for the team. The Rays' bullpen effort of Balfour, J.P. Howell and Chad
Bradford finished the final 4 1/3 innings, allowing no runs and just one hit
to preserve the win.
"We win the season series, which has an impact potentially, and furthermore
it's winning the series again two out of three," Maddon said. "It's another
Meatloaf situation. I look at it that way. The most significant part about
that is we win the season series, which can impact something as we go down
the road."
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