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Rays: Worst to first World Series
By FRED GOODALL, AP Sports Writer- 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.”
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Inglourious Basterd!!! 15000+ posts
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Inglourious Basterd!!! 15000+ posts
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Congratulations to the (Devil) Rays. It was a great ALCS and they deserve their victory. Here's hoping they win the World Series and make the Phillies fans cry for yet another year!
Uschi said:I won't rape you, I'll just fuck you 'till it hurts and then not stop and you'll cry. MisterJLA: RACKS so hard, he called Jim Rome "Chris Everett." In Him, all porn is possible. He is far above mentions in so-called "blogs." RACK him, lest ye be lost! "I can't even brush my teeth without gagging!" - Tommy Tantillo: Wank & Cry, heckpuppy, and general laughingstock ![[Linked Image from i6.photobucket.com]](http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/JoeMama13/RedSoxBanner05.png)
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terrible podcaster 15000+ posts
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'hey, do you guys remember the '08 world series?'
'no. why the fuck should we?'
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Joined: May 2005
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Kneel! 10000+ posts
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Kneel! 10000+ posts
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congrats to the rays. that last game was great to watch. i dont really care who wins the series as long as its a good one...
big_pimp_tim-made it cool to roll in the first damn place! Mon Jun 11 2007 09:27 PM- harley finally rolled with me "I'm working with him...he's young but, there is much potential. He can apprentice with me and then he's yours for final training. He will remember the face of his father... Some day, Knutreturns just may be the greatest of us all...."-THE bastard
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Educator to comprehension impaired (JLA, that is you) 50000+ posts
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Educator to comprehension impaired (JLA, that is you) 50000+ posts
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not me, I have a team I want to win, but don;t care as long as the series is awful.
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Award-Winning Author 10000+ posts
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Knutreturns said: Spoken like the true Greatest RDCW Champ!
All hail King Snarf!
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cobra kai 15000+ posts
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cobra kai 15000+ posts
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i didn't watch the playoffs, nor will i watch the world series, but i like how underdog the rays are. never getting to finish even 4th place, and now going to the championship - thats pretty aweshome.
it's amazing that, even with all their success this year, in the final, clinching game of the ALCS against the sox, they still couldn't even sell out their stadium.
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10000+ posts
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You're boycotting the one Yankee-less postseason this millennium? Or has the economy left you unable to pay your cable bill? Two young, well-balanced, ultra-talented teams that were built with smart scouting and player development, rather than a checkbook. If I was a Yankee fan I'd be pretty curious about this World Series. I would tape the games and mail them to Hank Steinbrenner with a note saying "please pay attention", in fact. 'hey, do you guys remember the '08 world series?'
'no. why the fuck should we?' I think this conversation was actually about any of your substance-less posts.
MisterJLA is RACKing awesome.
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Joined: Oct 2000
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Educator to comprehension impaired (JLA, that is you) 50000+ posts
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Educator to comprehension impaired (JLA, that is you) 50000+ posts
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cobra kai 15000+ posts
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You're boycotting the one Yankee-less postseason this millennium? when the yankee season ends, my baseball season ends. i'm not really interested in any other team enough to watch them. similarly, if i'm at a bar or something and there's a non-yankee baseball game on, i wont give a shit about that, either; october or otherwise. conversely, with pro football or college basketball, i can get into any game If I was a Yankee fan I'd be pretty curious about this World Series. I would tape the games and mail them to Hank Steinbrenner with a note saying "please pay attention", in fact. that's another thing -- stop mailing everyone tapes.
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10000+ posts
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10000+ posts
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when the yankee season ends, my baseball season ends. i'm not really interested in any other team enough to watch them. similarly, if i'm at a bar or something and there's a non-yankee baseball game on, i wont give a shit about that, either; october or otherwise. Fair enough, but it sounds a little like a vicious cycle: you're not interested enough to watch, and you don't watch enough to get interested! Seriously, though, anyone that wants their baseball team to win should at least be aware of the Tampa Bay Jesus Rays. Virtually no payroll or prestige, and an offense that is more pedestrian than powerhouse; they win not necessarily with 'smallball' but with smartball. They were #1 in adjusted defensive efficiency as a team, they have hitters that work the count(indeed, like your Yankee teams of...yore), and they have a deep, super-deep, Grand Canyon-deep pitching staff that allows them to spread the workload out. Some of this is due to the high draft picks their epic loserly ways afforded them(both Garza and Price were acquired, either directly or indirectly, with #1 overall picks), but the management, much derided in the Lamar era, really deserves a lot of credit. They found ways to exploit the market and build a strong team with the resources they had. This philosophy can applied to large-market, high-payroll teams also, as Boston and the Epstein '$100 million player development machine' has shown. that's another thing -- stop mailing everyone tapes. But I really thought you'd like my VHS of Ed...
MisterJLA is RACKing awesome.
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cobra kai 15000+ posts
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i've liked the (still-devil!) rays for a few years now. both in relation to the yankees spring camp, as well as this huge SI article that came out a few years ago (and was reprised earlier this season) about them being "the next big dynasty". also, cuz i really like lou piniella, and thought he did a much-better-than-credited job with the team.
i never would have thought they'd get this amazing this quickly (never even 500 to leading the division??) but i figured within the next few years they'd be striving towards AL east pennants.
still... i dunno. i've just never had much interest in watching non yankee baseball.
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