ST. PETERSBURG
Were you worried when Carlos Peña was scratched from the lineup Friday night?
Or when Scott Kazmir needed what felt like 723 pitches and more than four hours to get out of the first inning?
It only felt like that long and that many pitches. Actually, Kazmir needed 37 pitches and 21 minutes, and all the Chicago White Sox could manage was two runs in Game 2 of this American League Division Series.
What's a two-run deficit for the Big Ray Machine?
Nothing, that's what.
"We know we can get out of that," Dioner Navarro said.
And, of course, the Rays did.
They've been coming back all season, first against their history that says last-place and then against the doubters who saw them as a fluky little team that would eventually realize they were swimming in the deep end of the pool and dogpaddle for the safety.
The latest comeback was Friday's 6-2 victory which gave the Rays a 2-0 lead in the best-of-three series.
They did it without Peña, whose vision in his left eye was still too blurry for him to play, and they did it with Kazmir, who settled down and pitched long enough to earn the victory.
From train wreck to steaming down the tracks toward history.
The Rays are one win away from advancing to the American League Championship Series; one victory away from playing for the American League pennant.
This team was the worst in baseball over the last two seasons.
Can you believe it?
"We know we can't let down," Navarro said.
Never mind him, can you believe it?
The Rays stuck their strict 30-minute rule Friday, which means they celebrated the win for 30 minutes then packed their bags for the flight to Chicago.
Different story for Rays fans, who filled Tropicana Field to playoff capacity for the second straight night and nearly blew the roof off the building when Chad Bradford blew a fastball past a motionless Jim Thome for the final out of the night.
No 30-minute rule for them.
Hey, when you've put up the garbage they have during the first 10 years of Rays baseball, a 30-hour cap on celebrations may not be fair.
Kazmir could have buried the Rays in that first inning. Pitching coach Jim Hickey said he was one swing from a White Sox bat away from disaster.
But even the erratic Kazmir caught some of the Rays pennant fever and settled down.
And Willy Aybar, playing in place of Peña, singled and scored in the second inning and doubled his next at-bat.
That's the way it has been this season for the Rays. Aybar was 0-for-6 lifetime against Chicago starter Mark Buehrle, but Rays manager Joe Maddon had a hunch, so Aybar was in the lineup as the designated hitter before being moved to first base when Peña was scratched.
Funny thing about Maddon's hunches, they've scored a lot of runs this year.
"It's been like this the whole season," Navarro said. "It's been fun."
Been fun?
How much more fun will it be if the Rays have another champagne bath in Chicago? If the next game at the Trop is in the ALCS?
One more win and the Rays move a step closer to the World Series.
"They kind of remind me like in (2005) with us," Buehrle said of the Rays.
Remember what the White Sox did in '05?
They won the World Series.
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