Friday, Oct. 10, 2008

Rays, Red Sox ready to rumble

The Tampa Bay Rays knew it would come to this.

Their regular-season series with the Boston Red Sox was too tense, too competitive and too fiery. It became one of baseball's most riveting stories, and riveting stories always have climactic finishes on grand stages.

It doesn't get much grander than the American League Championship Series, where the Rays and Red Sox will put a cap on their six-month grudge match beginning tonight at Tropicana Field.

Tampa Bay and Boston battling for the pennant - a laughable notion back in March that makes perfect sense here in October.

"I just felt over the last couple of months that somehow, someway," said Rays outfielder Gabe Gross, "it would come down to us playing Boston for us to get to where we wanted to go.

"Here we are."

Gross was acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers on April 23 while the Rays were in Orlando. His first game at Tropicana Field with his new team was April 25, when Tampa Bay landed the first punch by beating Boston en route to recording a three-game sweep.

"That was just a huge series," he said. "And every game we've played since then has been just as big."

Despite being out-hit, outscored and, in terms of the starting rotation, out-pitched, the Rays won the season series for the first time since 1999. The margin of victory - 10-8 - was the same difference between the two in the standings, where Tampa Bay won its first division crown and wound up earning homefield advantage for the ALCS.

Good thing, too - the Rays were 8-1 against the Red Sox at the Trop and 2-7 at Fenway Park.

"From Day One, this is the way we wanted it to be - Boston and us," said Rays third baseman Evan Longoria. "We were the best teams in the AL East all year, and now it's come to this, and I think we're really excited I think that it happened this way."

Being the best requires beating the best in the eyes of manager Joe Maddon. So it's fitting Tampa Bay's journey to its first World Series has to go through the reigning world champions.

"It's going to be easier for us in a sense because we play them so much that we know their scouting report, we know their guys so much," Longoria said. "But at the same time, it's a tough road through Boston."

Not that it's been easy for either team this season - 11 of the series' 18 games were decided by three runs or fewer, and all but one Rays victory were decided by two runs or less.

Both teams dominated at home, though Tampa Bay took a giant step forward by taking two of three games at Boston in early September after dropping the first six there.

"For us, mentally, that was pretty big," Gross said. "Not only just to go in there and (win) a game, but to take the series from them - and to do that in close ballgames."

From Dan Johnson's shocking game-tying home run against Red Sox closer extraordinaire Jonathan Papelbon to Jason Hammel coming out of the Rays' bullpen to escape a no-out, bases-loaded jam to that bench-clearing brawl June 5, the two teams never made it boring.

"It's been really intense," said James Shields, who threw a two-hitter against Boston on April 27 and will start Game 1 for the Rays tonight. "I remember coming out of a couple series here at home, I'm going, 'That felt like a playoff game.'

"Here we are - we're in a playoff game, and I think it's going to feel the same."

Now it's come down to this. To the winner go the grandest of spoils - a trip to the World Series.

"We pushed them, we pushed them, they pushed back," said Boston manager Terry Francona. "We could never overtake them. Now is our chance to overtake them."