Projo Sports Blog

By Nick Cafardo
The Boston Globe

CHICAGO - Rocco Baldelli was soaking wet, dripping champagne from head to toe, when he left his teammates for a moment and headed out the clubhouse door to find his dad.
The two hugged and father patted son on the face as he told him, "You deserved this moment."

If anyone deserved Tampa Bay's 6-2 win and 3-games-to-1 triumph over the White Sox yesterday in the American League Division Series, it was Baldelli, the second-longest tenured Ray (Carl Crawford is No. 1) but the one who has been through the most adversity. The oft-injured Baldelli is recovered from his most recent ailment, a mysterious mitochondrial disorder that slows muscle recovery and causes fatigue, which kept him inactive for most of this season.

"Just great, great guys in here," said Baldelli, who grew up in Cumberland. "Just to watch what they accomplished all season and just to be able to be a small part of it is something I'll never forget. That's the joy for me, watching these guys celebrate, because I know how hard they worked and how far they've come."

The decision in Game 4 at U.S. Cellular Field allowed the Rays to exhale
a bit and await the winner of Red Sox-Angels. The Rays, who won their first playoff series, were rooting for the Red Sox so they could retain home-field advantage, and they got their wish.

"All I can say is, if it's the Red Sox, that would be cool," said Carlos Pena of Haverhill, Mass., who stroked three hits and knocked in two runs, right after the game. "That's my boyhood team. That's the team I grew up watching and rooting for, and believe me, I rooted for them in '04 and '07. That's why if it's them, it'll be sweet for a kid who went to high school and college [Northeastern] there."

The Rays won the season series vs. the Sox, 10-8, including 8-1 at Tropicana Field.
"We're comfortable and we're confident," said Rays designated hitter Cliff Floyd. "I've been on a lot of teams, but this one has all of the intangibles and the tangibles. We're a good team and we're for real."

Rays senior adviser Don Zimmer thrust himself into the celebration, then backed off and watched it.

"It's just fun to watch all of these young kids get so excited, but they know it's not over yet," said Zimmer. "That's what I loved about our team. They stayed focused on each game. They never got ahead of themselves." Of a potential series against Boston, Zimmer, the former Sox manager, then said, "Wouldn't that be great?"

Asked what team he was a part of reminded him of these Rays, Zimmer paused and said, "The only one that comes close is the 1989 Cubs. We left Arizona that spring and nobody gave us a chance. I remember Jim Frey and I went out with Harry Caray one night and he asked me do you think we can win 81 games? Well we won the division. We just didn't go as far as we wanted to, but this team has a chance."

The Rays received a solid outing from Andy Sonnanstine, who gave up two runs in 5{dbcomma} innings. Sonnanstine, 25, went 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA in three starts against the White Sox in the regular season, allowing seven earned runs in 21 innings. He pitched a three-hit shutout against them April 19, the first complete game of his career to that point.

The Rays' bullpen continued to be untouchable with 3.1 scoreless innings. J.P. Howell got four outs, then Grant Balfour six. Balfour struck out Ken Griffey to end the game as the Rays poured out of the dugout to celebrate.

Center fielder B.J. Upton set the tone for the Rays, stroking solo homers in the first and third innings off White Sox starter Gavin Floyd, who allowed four runs and five hits over three innings plus. Upton, who hit only nine homers during the regular season after hitting 24 in 2007, also homered in Sunday night's loss. The Rays scored two in the fourth on an RBI double by Floyd and an RBI single by Dioner Navarro.

"It means everything," said Upton. "We've been at the bottom of the barrel for so long. And there was a point in time where people didn't know who we were. Now we believe we're going to play well every time we step on the field. The level of confidence is there and it's never left us."

Upton certainly has come a long way during the Rays' Cinderella season. Twice manager Joe Maddon benched him for not running hard, but the 24-year-old, who led the Rays with a .383 on-base percentage and 44 stolen bases, didn't seem discouraged and vowed to hustle more and he's done just that. He blamed his regular-season power shortage on fatigue in his left shoulder, but he said the strength is coming back.

Both White Sox runs came on homers, Paul Konerko in the fourth and Jermaine Dye in the sixth.

But the White Sox, to a man, realized they were beaten by the better team.

"They're going to be tough for anyone to beat," said Konerko. "They're for real. They can beat you in many ways."

 Tags  Boston Red Sox MLB playoffs Rocco Baldelli Tampa Bay Rays

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