ATTENTION WORLD - RAYS BEAT BOSTON

The Rays will play the Phillies. In the the World Series. The LAST game of the 2008 MLB Season...

What a night. The Rays played their game. The Red Sox endured the brilliance of The Pit. 41,000 fans armed with obnoxious cowbells and an aresenal of mohawks... and it rattled them. Just enough.

Garza was lights out and how 'bout David Price's finish? The punch-em-out/throw-em-out combo by Garza and Navi in the top of the 6th was game changing. RBI hits from Longo and Rocco and another home run by Willy Aybar manufactured the runs. Aki snags a laceburning rocket to end it. And for a half second thinks about stickin' the ball in his back pocket as a souvenier.

Congratulations Tampa Bay.

Feel The Heat Philadelphia!

Cheers!

Rays Playoff Roster - The Latest...

The unofficial official Tampa Bay Rays ALDS roster is becoming clearer.

Marc Topkin (St. Pete Times) reports:

• Carl Crawford will start in LF following Instructional League game appearances Monday and Tuesday. He was 0-4 Monday and 2-3 with a triple Tuesday. He will not bat in his usual #2 spot, however.
• The Rays will go with a 4 man rotation for the first series with Shields getting the start Thursday, Kazmir Friday, Garza in game 3 and Sonnanstine in game 4. Edwin Jackson said he's not on the playoff roster. Tough call, but he's just not a reliever.
• Though not official until tomorrow morning, it looks like the Rays have opted for Price over Percival. Thank God.

More on Topkin's blog.

Rays Magic Number Is 4

Things to do, places to go, people to see today so let's keep it short and sweet:

• Rays plucked the Orioles in Baltimore 4-2. The Rays did that with only 3 hits. That's a rather paltry bit of offense guys.
• So there should be plenty of pop left in the bats for today's doubleheader. How 'bout a barrage of hits today. Thank you. Game one at 2:05 PTown time.
• David Price was Brandon Morrow-esque in his first major league start last night, taking a no hitter into the 5th inning. No decision, but an awesome effort. Happy to have him on board. Not sure I agree he should bump Sonny or EJax from the rotation in the playoffs though.
• The Tribe topped the Red Sox last night. Thank you v-e-r-y much. Sox are 2.5 back with 7 to go. The mohawks have far reaching mojo.
• MLB Player of the Week Honors for Senor Pena. He hit .318 (7-for-22) with three homers and 12 RBIs in his last eight games, and notched his 100th RBI on a bases-loaded walk last night. Two consecutive 100 RBI seasons. Cheers Carlos!
• AB's for Jonny today? Baltimore is throwing a lefty in game one today. Could happen.
• The Rays could clinch as soon as tomorrow with two wins today. Shields is going for his career best 14th win. Time to ice the bubbly.
• No bubbly for Longo. Evan had the post-bubbly bobbles last night. He's had two months worth of errors in about a week. I'm sending a case of Martinelli Sparkling Cider especially for him.
• Crawford starts swinging today. Gonna make it harder to find a post season spot for Jonny if Carl cruises back.
• 7 games left. 3 more in Baltimore then 4 in Detroit. GO RAYS!

PRays The Lord And Pass The Advil!

The Rays deserved a celebraytion.

And they got one. Which might explain why the B Team took the field in the final game of the Twin series yesterday at The Trop. Sonny pitched another great game but didn't have the customary and ultra reliable infield to back him up. Longo was the only regular infielder and his aim was a bit off yesterday. At the end of the day in front of another sell-out crowd, the Rays came up short in a 1-4 loss to Minnesota. No action for the hometown boy. That swing is sure gonna be rusty if he ever gets a chance to air it out. The Magic Number clicker is still stuck on 6 with a Red Sox win yesterday.

Photo Steve Nesius (AP)

The drive for the AL East begins today as the Magic Bus rolls to Baltimore.

The last week of the regular season will feature rookie starters on the mound. David Price gets the ball tonight. Mitch Talbott tomorrow night. Garza, who threw on a quick turnaround last week, gets a rest until Saturday. Meanwhile, Percy's back is still in knots and he'll have a second set of epidural injections Tuesday and be available to pitch on Thursday. If things go well. He pitched an inning in relief on back to back days this weekend and wiggled through them with only a slight bit of drama. Joe's got some mighty heavy closer dice to roll in about a week. Percy better level with him to keep the 9=8 equation in balance. If the math on the t-shirts is new to you, it's been Joe Maddon's mantra all season. That's 9 players playing hard for 9 months = 8 teams that play on. Hey, it's worked so far :-)

Post-Season Roster Prognostications.

Carl Crawford's hand is still not cleared to swing a bat. He may be available this week as a defensive replacement or to pinch run. A reinjured tendon could be career ending. He didn't have a career year and may not be able to pick up where he left off. Rocco Baldelli is a great story and we love him, but he seems to need several days between partial games to recover. When this roster is whittled back down to 25 players for the playoff run it will be a tough call between two guys who could be out for the season, or worse, with one wrong move... or a few healthy guys who can be personally credited with the single game or two that will probably decide the AL East. Ruggiano, Perez, Gomes, Johnson, Baldelli, and Crawford. Oohhh-eee. Tough call.

Rays Playoff Bubbly In Bubble Wrap One More Night

PTownJr's Back To School Night topped the priority list last night. However, I managed to follow the ebb and flow of the Rays/Twins game on my most awesome and completely indispensable iPhone. Lot's of flow early. Followed by an ugly ebb. Really, it was more of a victory sucking vortex that swallowed the Rays 8-6 lead in the 9th.

Blowing a late lead has been a mighty rare occurrence this season so let's break it down with the return of The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.

You owe it to yourself to cue the music for this one. Just click that play button on the right:

THE GOOD:

• A five run first!
• Three long balls for Long-o.
• Pena and Navi went yard.
• Pena and Longo went yard back to back, the 8th B2B set for the Rays this year.
• Some fine defensive plays... or so I hear. The iPhone MLB dudes were pre-occupied with the highly offensive top of the 9th.
• The home debut of David Price, the 1st overall draft pick of the 2007 draft. King David went 2/3 of an inning in relief of a somewhat shaky Shields. Coming in with one out and two on, he K'd two tough lefties after giving up a 2 run single.
• Percy pitched a scoreless 8th! !!!!! !!!!! !
• The Rays could clinch a wildcard spot tonight with a win. But only if the White Sox, Jays and Yankees all lose. I hope all 18 eyeballs are on the game and not the scoreboard tonight.

THE BAD:

• A crowd of only 17,298. People! What gives out there? Are all the Back To School Nights in Florida on September 17th? I don't think so!
• Those three long balls of Longo's tied Jonny's Team Record for most home runs in a game vs. KC in July, 2005. C'mon Evan. You're a stud, but is nothing sacred? You already have my vote for Rookie of the Year without raiding the trophy case.
• The dart board Joe is using to pick the Closer Du Jour needs some grease. Or fairy dust. Or something.

THE UGLY:

• The Twins scored 5 in the top of the 9th sparked by some local kid named Span playing in front of the hometown crowd for the first time.
• Delmon Young was among those that piled on. (Remember him? The Skipper got on him for not running out an infield hit last year so he declared a sick day and got himself traded... for Bartlett and Garza. Neener neener.)
• The Twins used a slug bunt to inflict more damange. Gardenshire credited head coach Paul Maytorena of the Casa Grande High School Gauchos for that move. Thanks Paul. You got some 'splainin to do. From now on, you're limited to one copy of the playbook.

Last But Not Least:

The Pearls have become pretty Rays centric of late, but we need to send some love to Brandon Morrow. His latest outing wasn't so pretty so we won't dwell on it, but just want to send the good vibes to a good kid who has pledged more memorabilia for the silent auction at our 2008 Camp For A Cure. More news on Camp coming soon.

Just like hitting bottle caps with sticks... Sox Meatloafed in 90th Win

"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."

That was Carlos Pena's reaction to Joe Maddon's light bending lineup card last night. Tim Wakefield has owned The Trop and lefty DH Cliff Floyd was just 1-11 against the knuckleballer. So why not try something new? Joe's solution... use untested switch hitter Willie Aybar's right handed bat against the softball server. Something about the bat path of his swing path from that side of the plate. Uh huh. Willie went yard in his first at bat and put the Rays up 3-2. They never looked back. Gross, Perez and Longo flicked a few bottlecaps before Francona pulled the plug and began the bullpen emptying procession of Sox relievers.

Meanwhile, Ortiz hit two home runs off Garza who held his ground but didn't dazzle last night. With a cushy but not comfortable 8-3 lead in the 5th and Ortiz coming to the plate a third time, Maddon went to the pen with a one-run mindset. Garza needed only one more out to be credited with the win, but in the other quote of the evening, Maddon later said:

""It isn't about Garza's won-loss record," Maddon said. "It's about the Rays' won-loss record."

We'll need that kind of thinking a lot during the next 45 or so days.

No bottlecaps for Jonny in the Rays 10-3 win last night. But I'm sure he's having the time of his life. The Rays Meatloafed the Sox again taking 2 of 3 and reduced their magic numbers to 10 for the AL East Championship and 4 for a wild card berth. They host the Twins in a four game series that begins tonight and finish the season with a 7 game road trip in Baltimore and Detroit. Let's hope a two game lead over the Sox is enough.

The Rays have now blown through all but the most Pollyanna-ish expecations, notching their 90th win. 95 is within reach. Whoda (really) thunk it?

PTown's Gomes Back In The Show

Jonny Gomes got the call to Yankee Stadium following Durham's Governor's Cup loss to Scranton Wilkes Barre Friday night. Jonny and teammate David Price, the number one pick of the 2007 draft and USA Today Minor League Player Of The Year, made their way to the Big Apple, arriving early Saturday morning. A rainout Friday night forced a day/night doubleheader yesterday. PTownFan was determined not to miss a pitch and topped off the iPhone's juice before heading to PTownJr's 10:30 game. Seems the guys at the controls of the MLB iPhone App aren't equipped for last minute changes. No game one coverage! Sheesh! So... no insightful analysis to soften the cold reality of an 0-4 day for Jonny. He was 0-3 in game one with a K, a fly ball and a line out in 5 innings before Maddon subbed in Gabe Gross, apparently after Jonny had already taken the field. RHP Mike Mussina has had the Rays' number all season long so Maddon threw him a curve yesterday going with all all right handed lineup in game 1. It worked. Rays 7, NYY 1.

Game two was a bummer. Garza was rattled right from the start. Jonny K'd in a late pinch hit appearance as the Rays dropped game two 6-5 despite a grand slam from Ben Zobrist. Dedicated Rays fans have warmed up to Bennie and his timely offense over the course of the season. No long after yesterday's slam though, Zobrist mishandled a fairly routine double play ball erasing all of his offensive contribution. Sloppy D by a few Rays cost them the game, but they're still 2 games ahead of Boston.

The Rays play their final game in Yankee Stadium today and will take home the prized souvenier of a series win. Probably a bitter sweet day for Jonny. The Cathedral was the site of his first major league hit as he went 2 for 3 at DH on September 12, 2003. Hopefully he'll get a pinch hit appearance or two today and get to work on that .177 average.

Loved reading about David Price's drive from the airport to Yankee Stadium:
"I've played Grand Theft Auto quite a bit, so I'm kind of familiar with the whole city."

Durham Done... Rays Call In The Cavalry

The Running Of The Bulls was ugly in Durham tonight. The Yanks piled up 8 runs in the first two innings, then tacked on 12 insurance runs just for kicks. Durham answered with 2. Yeah, they came up just a little short. Jonny singled and scored in the 4th. That's about it for highlights.

But there's a silver lining. The Rays issued call-ups tonight. PTown's Pro and a passel of pitchers will be part of Tampa Bay's stretch run. Top prospect David Price will head to Yankee Stadium with Jonny in time for tomorrow afternoon's game. A rainout tonight means a doubleheader tomorrow. Price will be available to pitch (perhaps in place of Percy???). Jeff Niemann and Mitch Talbot will join the team in Tampa Bay on Monday. Unless three games in 24 hours require some fresh arms sooner.