Rays Win!

And I thought the only magic that happened in Florida took place an hour away from St. Petersburg in Orlando...

The Rays did the impossible Sunday by beating the playoff-tested Boston Red Sox. How could anyone think the Rays could pull this one out tonight? Just one year ago, these same Red Sox (sans Manny) were in the same position down 3 games to 1. Last year they beat an arguably better team in the Cleveland Indians. They had cancer-survivor Jon Lester on the mound, who lost game 3 but hadn't lost 2 straight decisions all season. And of course, the normal cast of characters: Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz.

Last year, the Sox faced sinker-baller Jake Westbrook in game 7 of the ALCS. This year, a young kid named Matt Garza took the hill with a pair of earplugs to drown out the ruckus crowd at the Trop. Like Westbrook, Garza features a hard 93 MPH sinking fastball and he had it tonight. Other than an early Dustin Pedroia homer, Garza was lights out the rest of the night. Delmon who?

As for the Rays offense, Evan Almighty got the party started with a double just inside the right field foul line. Willy Aybar provided the pop with a solo HR to stretch the Rays lead to 2 in the bottom of the 7th.

With a 3-1 lead going into the 8th, Garza allowed Alex Cora to reach base on a Jason Bartlett error. Rays skipper Joe Maddon then went to his bullpen... the same bullpen who had a 3-1 SERIES lead and a 7-0 game 5 lead. After Dan Wheeler allowed a Coco Crisp base hit, he got Pedroia to pop out to left. With Papi strolling to the plate, Maddon went to the mound for the 2nd time in the inning to get a lefty-lefty matchup going with JP Howell. Howell got Ortiz to ground into a very close fielder's choice at 2nd base. With runners at 1st and 3rd, Maddon came out once more to get veteran Chad Bradford to pitch to Youkilis. After walking Youk on 5 pitches, Maddon did the unthinkable.

With the 70 million dollar JD Drew coming to the plate, Maddon pulled the veteran submariner for a 23 year old kid just out of Vanderbilt. The first overall pick in the 2007 David Price jogged to the mound from the bullpen. A guy who started the year in A ball in May would pitch to one of the most dangerous hitters in the Boston lineup.

Four pitches later, all the nay-sayers stand corrected. A pumped up Price strikes out Drew on a check-swing call. After an uninspiring bottom of the inning, Maddon does the unthinkable.

He brings out Price to close out the most important game in Rays history. Jason Bay is the first batter up and he draws a walk out of the rookie southpaw. You can hear the critics now, "Price has no experience... Kazmir is available, he's their ace... Balfour was made for this moment." But before you can say "Manny being Manny", the Vandy Dandy stikes out a couple of batter and coaxes a ground ball to the end the game and win the pennant.

How can a manager let a rookie go out into that situation? In my opinion, David Price is arguably every single thing the Rays have stood for this season. All 25 guys that started the season in Tampa didn't have a lot (if any) post-season experience. Sure, Troy Percival had been a closer for the World Series winning Angels in 2002, but the core group of guys (Upton, Crawford, Pena) have never been in a game 7 let alone a post-season game. Entering the 2008 playoffs, all these guys were rookies. And for the longest time, all everyone's heard is you need veteran leadership to make it deep in the playoffs. After all, that's why the Brewers faltered in the first round. In any sport, experience always seems to be a factor. But the Rays are real proof that a team with as little experience as them could grow together in less than a month.

Joe Maddon deserves a lot of credit for his gutsy move. He will get it when the season is over World Series champion or not, but he is one of the few managers out there that KNOWS his team. What he's done this past year with the group of guys he's had is nothing short of unbelievable. I've paid attention to the Rays most of the year and can't tell you how many genius moves he's made, from pitching changes to weird defensive alignments (this one deserves a blog post on it's own). The Phillies may have a bit more talent, but if the World Series comes down to managing, the Rays should sweep the series.

As much as we all most likely hoped for a Dodgers/Sox World Series just to see Manny's return to Boston, you gotta love the storybook ending for the Rays. In just a couple of days, Tropicana Field will be the happiest place on earth.

DD

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