Rays manager Joe Maddon, meanwhile, spent part of his day trying to cancel a debit card that someone in New York was using to buy gasoline. Given how much gas costs these days, Maddon said, "I'd rather they went to Tiffany's."
And then the Sox and Rays stuck to playing baseball, and the piercing thunder that could be heard outside Tropicana Field's Teflon dome was matched by the gathering storm inside. The Sox last night succumbed to the Rays - the devil-you-say, first-place, we-back-down-to-no-one, history-rewriting Rays - 5-4, before a crowd of 34,145 at the Trop that for the first time in memory had more folks cheering for the home side than for the Boston carpetbaggers.
The Rays survived the kind of freak play that would have spelled disaster for them in the past - a routine fly ball by Brandon Moss in the ninth that struck the "B" catwalk above the playing surface, turning a certain out into a run-scoring double.
"As much as I [complain] about this stadium, it almost helped us win a game," Francona said. "It was awkward. I was looking up, getting [Sean] Casey ready to hit for [Julio] Lugo, [Troy] Percival's in the game, all of a sudden, the ball, nobody really knows where it is, and all of a sudden we have a chance to win the game. I wish it had helped us win, but it was still a crazy play."
Jason Varitek followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 5-4, and more calamity for the Rays: graybeard closer Percival, something of a Yoda for the young and restless Rays, aggravated a left hamstring injury that had sent him to the disabled list earlier this season. Percival practically wrestled Maddon to stay in the game, but finally relented.
"I was frustrated about the ring shot and I was frustrated that my leg just popped again for the 12th time and I just needed to yell at somebody and he was there," Percival said. "I hate coming off the mound in the middle of an inning . . . but Joe did the right thing."
Maddon went to lefthander J.P. Howell, Casey did an about-face (Maddon said afterward he thought Casey had been announced), and it was up to Lugo, the former Ray who the day before had readily agreed this was the biggest series in Tampa Bay history.
