ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - They believe they can overtake the Red Sox. They really do.
And whether you’re a Red Sox fan or just a baseball fan, you have to respect the Tampa Bay Rays, and their manager in particular.
Listening to Joe Maddon after last night’s 6-5 victory over the Sox, won on Evan Longoria’s walkoff single in the 11th inning, was like attending a Tony Robbins seminar. You believe you can make a fortune and be the greatest person on earth and achieve anything you want.
And Maddon has his team believing in miracles. The Rays are 4 ½ games behind the Red Sox in the wild-card race, four out in the loss column. After play on Aug. 7, the Rays were 10 games behind the Yankees for the wild card. Since then they have gone 21-10, 14-5 at home.
They have five more games with Boston, including today’s finale with James Shields opposing Jon Lester.
If the Rays pull off the miracle, my goodness.
We all understand the challenges Tampa Bay faces, the small payroll, the lack of big-name players. We understand they’ve got terrific young pitchers, and one of them, 24-year-old righty Jeremy Hellickson tossed six innings and a quality start last night without his best stuff.
They run out ground balls and make huge defensive plays. The only thing they couldn’t do last night was hit with runners in scoring position. They were 0 for 13 before Longoria’s winning single. But they do so many other things fundamentally well that they can go up against a far superior lineup like Boston’s and win.
They can overcome their closer, Kyle Farnsworth, giving up ninth-inning homers to Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Jacoby Ellsbury. Afterward it was learned that Farnsworth hurt his elbow and will be out for a while.
Maddon was ecstatic about the work done by lefty Cesar Ramos and righty Brandon Gomes of Fall River, Mass., as both shut down the Sox at critical moments before Farnsworth’s collapse.
“My point is every one knows they’re going to get utilized here and everyone believes that we can do this,’’ Maddon said. “There’s no question in my mind. We’ve validated the charge the last two days.
“If we can continue this momentum and keep everybody involved and engaged, we are a group that has to do different things in different spots to make everything work. So they come to the ballpark and they know they can play. They know to come prepared.’’
So when Farnsworth blew a 5-3 lead there was no “woe is us’’ mentality. In fact, the Rays got hungrier, tougher.
Leading off the bottom of the 11th, Desmond Jennings tripled to the gap in right-center. B.J. Upton couldn’t get the job done, but again, nobody panicked.
“I just love the involvement,’’ Maddon said. “This is who we are and what we do.’’
