The devil is gone in these Rays, and so is the sympathy. And given the way the Rays pushed the Sox to the limit again last night, those Sox fans planning to attend tonight's series finale are advised to bring along a stiff upper lip.
The opportunistic Rays, who spun gold out of ordinary walks Monday night, last night worked some more alchemy to beat the Sox, 3-1, using another walk, an error, a comebacker and two wild pitches by Tim Wakefield to score their first two runs. A two-out RBI single by Dioner Navarro, his second of the night, off Manny Delcarmen in the eighth after Craig Hansen issued two walks, was the night's final indignity for the Sox, who now trail the Rays by 2 1/2 games in the American League East and are assured of being in second place when they leave for New York following tonight's game.
"When you're playing a hot team like that, you can't make mistakes like that - they're going to make the most of it and they did," said Sox catcher Kevin Cash, who grew up in north Tampa, spent two seasons in the Rays' system, and has never seen the likes of what he's witnessed the last two nights, an other crowd of 30,000-plus (31,112) giving it up for a team that has known only losing in its first miserable decade of existence.
"It wasn't like this when I was here," said Cash, who appeared in 13 games for the Rays in 2005 and never made it out of Triple A the following season.
"But they deserve it. They're playing good ball. I played with a lot of these guys in Triple A, and you can see they have a lot more confidence and they've been here long enough to know they can win."
Last month's brawl with the Rays may have caught up with the Sox, too. With Coco Crisp serving his five-game suspension, Terry Francona sent slump-ridden Jason Varitek to pinch hit to start the eighth. His first choice was Sean Casey, but when Rays manager Joe Maddon replaced starter Matt Garza with lefthander J.P. Howell, Francona opted for Varitek, figuring his best chance to hit would be from the right side. The switch hitting Crisp would have been an obvious alternative, and Francona wouldn't have had to burn Casey.
