None of the Knights Of The Rays Table let the great green monster get the best of them. Sir BJ Upton got the biggest blast of the night with his 3 run home run. Sir Evan Longoria then came out and didn’t let the monster get the best of him there with another home run. Sir Carlos Pena was like, “if you can do that, then I can too” and Sir Pena had his blast. Sir Rocco Baldelli even got to beat the monster with a home run of his own. And Sir Matt Garza pitched a whale of a game. It wasn’t Fenway Park last night, it was a happy hunting ground for the Tampa Bay Rays.

One has to wonder how much of a factor that the road trip was for the Red Sox. How fortunate that the Rays are that they won the Division and did not have to go 3,000 miles to play the Angels.  Still, last night’s win was a bonus! I figured that tonight would have been the one game that the Rays could have won in Fenway from Wakefield. But after pulling off another miracle last night, can the Rays really take two up in Boston? Can the Rays slay the green monster up there in the heart of darkenss known as Fenway?

Tonight Andrew Sonnastine can help the Rays to increase their lead in this incredible 2008 ALCS. Who will be the hero tonight? Can the Red Sox come back to tie up the series or can the Rays take a step closer to the finals?

 How about B.J. Upton in the post season? While everyone has been focused on Evan Longoira, BJ has come out of nowhere. Here’s an interesting article from TBO.com…

It’s no coincidence that the Rays’ offensive renaissance in post-season has coincided with B.J. Upton’s surge.

After his big game Monday at Boston, Upton has five homers in seven post-season games with nine RBIs. His slugging percentage is a sick .839.

Not many teams can match that kind of production from the No. 2 spot in the batting order (although, to be fair, Boston’s Dustin Pedroia has been outstanding as well). And with Akinori Iwamura getting on base the way he has – he’s hitting .355 in the post-season – it sets up well for Upton, Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria.

Upton is swinging confidently again after battling a debilitating shoulder injury for much of the season. He has always had such a quick bat – often waiting until the ball was almost past him to uncoil, but the injury robbed him of that ability for much of the season.

Not any more.

His three-run homer in the third Monday off Jon Lester was a rocket. That’s about as hard as a human can hit a ball. It totally turned the game, and perhaps the series, around.

It’s especially significant considering Upton’s problems over the summer. We all know what happened – he was benched, fans booed, he struggled at the plate. A lot of the criticism was deserved. Even in a game like Monday he had a base-running blunder.

He rounded second base too far, thinking he could run to third if Boston’s Kevin Youkilis made a play to first on a grounder. Instead, Upton got thrown out when Youkilis threw behind him.

That could have been a critical mistake in a close game, but at least this was one of aggression.

“… it’s a wonderful moment we’re in right now, but this is just the beginning, and you have to — when you’re building it, when you’re putting it together, you really have to establish the core principles. And that’s one of them,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said of the earlier issues with Upton.

“B.J. understands that. He never made an excuse, never cried about it, more to his credit. Again, he’s one of the more gifted young athletes, not just the American League, in baseball right now, and he’s a wonderful young man on top of that.”

Now he’s at the heart of one of the best continuing stories that has ever played out on a baseball field.

GO RAYS! Series tied at 1 all!

And we really need the bats to wake up.

The Trop has so much anticipation you can cut it with a knife or hopefully a 98 mile an hour fastball that blows by Big Papi for strike three!

It’s crazy in Tampa Bay with Evan Longoria shirts flying off the shelves!

It’s crazy in Tampa Bay when Yankee fans are routing for the Rays to stuff the Red Sox!

It’s crazy when BASEBALL in Tampa Bay is hotter then Hockey OR Football!

The lights are ready, the Rays are ready, hopefully your quality adult beverage of choice is ready and let’s get ready to PLAY BALL!

The “they” in the headline is the national media, not the Rays. You have to love this week as a Rays fan with sports talk. It’s not just baseball talk, this week it’s sports talk. It’s not the regular season. It’s not the division title. It’s not even the Division League Series. It’s the American League Championship series, 4 wins away from the WORLD SERIES and our Tampa Bay Rays are in the semi-finals! Chicago fans are bummed, New York fans are bummed but first the first time in franchise history, Tampa Bay fans are FANATIC!

It’s painfully obvious that the media wants a Dodgers/RedSox series.  It’s painfully obvious that the national media still goes “who ARE these guys?” when it comes to our Rays. Fine with us, we wouldn’t have it any other way. They’ll know the Rays names after they beat the BoSox. Check out this stat of the day from TBO…

10 2/3

The number of innings pitched by the bullpen trio of Grant Balfour, J.P. Howell and Chad Bradford without giving up a run in the four playoff games against the White Sox.

 

And, as Richard pointed out, how about BJ Upton hitting three home runs in a row?

One morning sports talk show host won’t watch the World Series if the Rays are in it. This is coming from a Nationals fan, oh well, more for us! Another late night talk show host challenged his listeners (outside of the Tampa Bay area) to name four players on the Rays. It would be a feat to have the Rays win the World Series to just shut everyone outside of Tampa Bay up. The same host who won’t watch the World Series if the Rays are in it also thinks that the Rays don’t have any stars. Even one of this hosts co-hosts went, “What about Evan Longoira?”What about Rocco Baldelli even PLAYING baseball? How about Carlos Pena Sitcking with it through a rough first half to do great in the second half? How about just about every Ray having a game winning moment? If it wasn’t Gabe Gross one night, it was Jason Bartlett the next night. We even have players like Dan Johnson flying over from Durham, getting off the plane and in his first major league at bat getting a game tying home run! How about the bullpen pitchers like JP Howell, Grant Balfour and Dan Wheeler rocking and rolling?

How about James Shields during the first half and Matt Garza & Andrew Sonnastine during the second half? How about Edwin Jackson hanging in there? How about Scott Kazmir getting his groove back during the ALDS? Some games the starters may have not been stellar but they gave the Rays a chance to win the game. This year a chance was all that the Rays have needed. The Rays game this year is defense and pitching. If the score was low, you knew the Rays had a good chance to win. There were also some games this year with miracle comebacks.

Friday at 837PM EST we’ll be cheering on the Rays. Weither it’s on listening on the radio or TV, cheering them on at the Trop…everyone’s mind will be thinking two things: “Go Rays” and “Stuff The RedSox!”

9=8 is now 9=4.

BJ Upton was a unlikely hero who borrowed a page from Evan Longoira’s book and homered for both of his first bats for the game. Forgotten was all the talk about how Upton needed to have more hustle. Two home runs first two at bats. If that isn’t hustle, I don’t know what hustle is.

Andrew Sonnastine was an unlikely hero, since Sonnastine was winless in his last seven regular season starts.  Yet Sonnastine will be remembered not only for this victory in 2008 but also the two times that he hung with Josh Beckett pitch for pitch.

We’ll break things down a little more tomorrow…but it sank in. RAYS = ALCS. The semi-finals. Halfway to the world series. Believe it!

GO RAYS!

The fast facts from ESPN says it all:

The White Sox won their fourth straight postseason game at home.

• Dewayne Wise drove in two runs for Chicago. He owns five of the White Sox’s 11 RBIs in this series.

• Rays starter Matt Garza fell to 0-3 in last six starts dating back to the regular season.

• The first three hitters in Tampa Bay’s lineup were 6-for-15. The rest of the team went 2-for-20.

– ESPN research

You can’t put all the blame on Garza but he gets some of it. You can’t put all the blame on the lineup but they get some of it also. At least Aki and BJ Upton got RBI’s but there weren’t enough of them. You also have to wonder why when Garza was getting lit up, Maddon kept him in there. When the line up goes 8 for 35, it’s not a good day for scoring. Maybe you can even blame it on the rain (that was a song, wasn’t it?) that KO’ed the Rays BP or even blame it on the pigeon that Navi and Garza were trying to shoo away in the second.

That’s it, we have our official scapegoat for losing game three.

We’ll blame everything on the pigeon.

It’s up to Andrew Sonnastine now, let’s finish the job and give Carlos Pena an extra day or two to heal.

GO RAYS!

It’s up to Matt Garza, the second half ace for the Rays, to help the good guys take the battle to the south side of Chicago today. The North Side Cubs have already been eliminated from post season play by the Dodgers. Now, the speedy Rays can take care of the White Sox. But the good guys can’t underestimate the WhiteSox, After all the Brewers are still in it! Last time around, Aki and Kid K helped the Rays get the job done. Who will step up to the plate today to help the Rays win their FIRST ever ALDS?

Here are “just the facts” from MLB.com:

Rays starter: RHP Matt Garza

2008: 11-9, 3.70 ERA

2008 on road: 4-6, 4.53 ERA
2008 vs. White Sox: Did not face White Sox in 2008
Career vs. White Sox: 1-1, 4.97 ERA
Career postseason: First appearance
White Sox starter: LHP John Danks
2008: 12-9, 3.32 ERA
2008 at home: 5-6, 3.66 ERA
2008 vs. Rays: 2-1, 1.86 ERA
Career vs. Rays: 3-1, 2.96 ERA
Career postseason: First appearance

Rays lead series, 2-0. Twenty-seven of the 31 teams to take a 2-0 lead in the Division Series have advanced.

Game 1: Rays 6, White Sox 4
Game 2: Rays 6, White Sox 2
Did You Know? Danks generally had better stats on the road this season (7-3, 2.92) than at U.S. Cellular Field (5-6, 3.66). However, opponents hit just .238 against him at home, 18 points lower than his road average.

And the final call of the game sounded so good, “Outside corner, strike three called, Rays win game 2!”

The Rays can do it Sunday in Chicago.They can win the ALDS!

I know I’ll be rooting for them tomorrow.