Oct 1, 2008 - 6:06 AM
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Sometimes a team needs to finish at the bottom one, two or 10 times before it finally makes the climb to the top of the standings.
The Tampa Bay Rays made such a climb this season, going from the worst record in baseball in 2007 to the American League East title in 2008, reaching the postseason for the first time in franchise history.
Along the way the Rays proved that you can stand up to the big, bad New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox despite a payroll hundreds of million dollars smaller and a bunch names that don't exactly have the paparazzi staking out the players' parking lot.
So how did they do it? Here are three reasons:
1) The pitching staff got much, much better and the rotation stayed healthy.
After ace Scott Kazmir returned in early May from an elbow ailment, he, James Shields, Matt Garza, Edwin Jackson and Andy Sonnanstine started all but two games - both in the last week of the season when the regulars were resting.
The arrival of Garza in an offseason trade with the Minnesota Twins and the continued development of Jackson made Tampa Bay's starting five the second-best unit in the AL with a 3.95 ERA.
Backing them up was a bullpen that went from historically bad to stellar in one season.
Veteran Troy Percival was signed to lock up the ninth inning, but it was Dan Wheeler, Grant Balfour and J.P. Howell settling into roles and emerging as power arms that made the difference. The relief corps improved from a 6.16 ERA in 2007 to a 3.55 mark this season.
Shields will get the call in Thursday's Game One against the Chicago White Sox.
"It's an amazing feeling to me," Shields said. "I've worked really hard this whole season, and this whole team has. To have the honor of pitching my first game of the playoffs, let alone the first game of the playoffs, it's just a great feeling."
A feeling made possible by the great strides the entire staff made in 2008.
"We always knew we had a lot of talent in this clubhouse," Shields said. "Somewhere along the way, we just learned how to win."
2) Pitching and defense win games.
While the pitching went from worst to second-best, the team defense made the complete jump, from worst to first.
Baseball Prospectus uses a measure called defensive efficiency that tracks the number of balls in play that are turned into outs by a given team. The then-Devil Rays ranked dead last in the majors in 2007, turning 66.2 percent of balls into outs.
This year the now-Rays have reached the top of the standings, turning 71 percent of balls in play into outs.
The difference is in the personnel on the field, especially the left side of the infield. The Rays brought in slick-fielding shortstop Jason Bartlett as part of the Garza trade and promoted rookie Evan Longoria to full-time third base duty in early April, giving the club a pair of plus defenders on the left.
That allowed Akinori Iwamura to move from third base to second, and B.J. Upton to stay in center field, where his speed plays well in the outfield gaps.
Catcher Dioner Navarro not only blocks balls well around the plate but controls the running game by throwing out an AL-best 38 percent of runners attempting to steal.
3) There's no place like home.
Tampa Bay led the majors with 57 wins at home this season, turning Tropicana Field into a venue no other team wants to visit.
The quirkiest stadium in the majors with its numerous catwalks in play and speakers hanging over the field, Tropicana also of late has boasted a partisan crowd that cheers its own team.
While fans of the Red Sox and Yankees once used to overwhelm the home crowd, opposing teams have been greeted rudely the past few months as attendance has swelled.
The Rays expect to sell out Games One and Two of the American League Division Series.
"Today we stand before you as the AL East champions," first baseman Carlos Pena said in front of fans at a team rally. "When you think it cannot get any better, it still can.
We're going to play our hearts out for you."
