September 19, 2008

Rays can’t afford to take foot off the pedal or their opponents’ throats

By John Fineran, Special to Tampa Bay Sports Net

Cliff Floyd, generally a gentleman giant, had a look on his face that would have scared even his mother as he made his way into the Tampa Bay Rays locker room at Tropicana Field during the ninth inning of the Sept. 4 game with the New York Yankees.

Just before departing on their last road trip, the Rays had taken a 7-0 lead into the ninth inning against the Yankees, who had managed just three hits off Scott Kazmir, Trever Miller and Chad Bradford.

What the Yankees, who entered this season having made 13 straight trips to the playoffs, did to Rays reliever Jason Hammel in the ninth – five runs on four hits, including a 3-run homer by Derek Jeter and a solo shot by Alex Rodriguez – more than anything demonstrated the pinstriped pride which has made their franchise the most successful in professional sports history with its 26 World Series championships.

The rally also had Floyd mumbling to himself, using words which his mother would have washed from his mouth with soap. He looked through me and kept muttering something about the opponents, his foot and their collective throat.

“When you’ve got your opponents down,” the 6-foot-4, 260-pound Floyd said to no one in particular, “you have to keep your foot on their throats.”

Thursday night, the young Rays, who have fashioned maybe the most remarkable one-year turnaround in the history of baseball, demonstrated they still need guidance in applying their anatomical lessons.

After once again taking two out of three games from the Red Sox to move their AL East lead to two games over the defending World Series champions, the Rays encountered the Minnesota Twins, their “contraction” cousins of not so long ago because of their shared on-field and turnstile failures.

Both franchises survived baseball’s veiled threats and the Twins became an annual AL Central presence, building from within with a limited budget and some responsible thinking in trades and free agency, a script the Rays have followed this miraculous season.

As many times as they have shown resiliency this season, rising from the ashes of disappointment one night to the ecstasy of a hard-fought victory the next, the once-again confident Rays forgot that the Twins had something to play for, too, heading into this four-game series – they trailed the Chicago White Sox in the AL Central race by 2˝ games and the Red Sox by 7 in the Wild Card chase.

In Thursday night’s 11-8 loss to the Twins that wasted three Evan Longoria home runs and an 8-6 lead after eight innings, the young Rays had thrown a life preserver to the Twins instead of tying on a leaded anchor.

Instead of keeping their collective feet on the Twins’ collective throats, the Rays extended a helping hand. In the process, they lost an opportunity to keep up with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for the American League’s best record. At 90-61, Tampa Bay trails the 93-59 Angels by 2˝ games with 11 games to play, eight of which will be against Baltimore and Detroit next week on the road where they are 35-38.

If anything, the Twins provided the Rays with one more lesson they need to learn – that you can’t start celebrating the ultimate prize without getting past the finish line first. In winning the 100 meters in world-record time at the Summer Olympics in Beijing a couple of weeks ago, Jamaica’s Usain Bolt coasted to the wire as he admonished his seven other foes. Later, it was revealed that Bolt’s world-record 9.69 clocking could have been 9.59 if he hadn’t hot-dogged it to the tape.

There is still plenty of mustard in the Rays’ locker-room refrigerator because Joe Maddon has a team built not with frankfurters. It remains, however, a team which needs to remain hungry down the home stretch.

If the Rays can finish the season on a hot streak, say 9-2 to finish 99-63, that could be enough to gain them the AL’s best record, which would guarantee them in each playoff series they play an extra game at home, where they have been 55-23, baseball’s best.

The Rays know, of course, they haven’t won anything yet – not a playoff spot and certainly not the AL East, the AL pennant and the World Series.

Their manager, who has been so good in saying and doing the right things and making the unconventional moves at the right times, has told them they need to respect what they have accomplished.

That’s why it wouldn’t surprise if Maddon postponed any celebration once the Rays, who need two wins over Minnesota in the next three days, clinched the playoffs because it might eliminate the edge his team has owned in its 2˝-month occupancy of first place in baseball’s toughest division.

With a magic number of 10 to clinch the East, the Rays need to celebrate in moderation until the American League’s best record is finally determined. Both of those will be determined on the road.

Instead, the mother of all celebrations should take place a week from Sunday night, after the Rays have jetted home from that final game in Motown to sing and party with their fans in Tropicana Field all night long.

Only then can their spikes be removed from the oppositions’ throats. Those same spikes can then be wiped clean so the Rays can do it all again against the three playoff opponents standing between them, a World Series banner and baseball’s ultimate Cinderella story: A glass slipper to the larynxes of all those non-believers.

John Fineran is a freelance columnist and sports writer and currently the associate editor for Gator County Magazine.