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Kazmir looks to give Rays a two-game lead

Oct 3, 2008 - 11:16 AM American League Division Series Rays Lead 1-0

Chi White Sox at Tampa Bay 6:05 p.m. EDT

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Ticker) -- All that talk about the Tampa Bay Rays' inexperience? Over.

Third baseman Evan Longoria and pitcher James Shields - with a combined four years of MLB experience between them - made sure of that. Now, they have an opportunity to push the more experienced Chicago White Sox to the brink of elimination.

A pair of lefthanders face off on Friday as the Rays and White Sox continue their divisional series with Game Two. The Rays took the opener, 6-4, on the strength of Longoria's two homers and 6 1/3 strong innings from Shields.

Tampa Bay southpaw Scott Kazmir will try to follow that up with a winning performance of his own as he duels Chicago's Mark Buehrle.

"I think the playoff atmosphere is a little different than the regular season, to say the least. It's exciting to see," Kazmir said. "The Rays' fans all come out like that, and before the game starts they have chants going and what-not. It really pumps us up ... I got a good feel for it, and you know, (it) just makes me a little more prepared."

Longoria became the second player in major league history to homer in each of his first two postseason at-bats, in the process putting to rest any notion that his team's youth and lack of postseason savvy will be a detriment this October. That, of course, was the big question.

"You know, you could sense that there was a different feeling about the game, you know, the energy level in the ballpark," Longoria said. "But other than that, I mean, I was able to settle in pretty quickly."

Even during the regular season, when the Rays were competing for a division title from beginning to end and eventually won it, many have just been waiting for the other shoe to drop.

It still hasn't.

"I like the way our guys went about the business a lot," Rays manager Joe Maddon said after Thursday's win. "Prior to the game, some of the broadcasters came in and gave me a feeling of the pulse of the mood of the group, and we got thumbs on up on that, I liked it."

Of course, experience will be in the spotlight once again as Buehrle - who helped the White Sox win a championship three years ago - makes his first playoff appearance since notching a save in the third game of the 2005 World Series. The 29-year-old lefty was 2-0 with a 3.47 ERA during that postseason.

Even Buehrle admits that the experience factor may be overstated.

"I'm not really sure if experience does anything," Buehrle said. "Obviously, in '05, not many people had experience on our team and we went out there and played well and won the World Series. So I mean, they're big games, there are a lot of pressure situations you're going to be in. But for a guy like me to go out there, I try not to put any more pressure on myself."

The Rays' Kazmir may be making his first career playoff start in his fifth MLB campaign, but he's seen enough of the White Sox this season to know what to expect. In two starts, he went 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA, striking out 13 in 13 innings. For his career, he is 3-1 in five starts.

However, the ace lefty has had a rough go of it lately after dominating through most of his first three months. He has failed to get past the sixth inning since July 21, registering a 4.48 ERA over 12 starts since. His control issues - a recurring problem at times throughout his career - flared up again, as he issued 35 walks over his final 55 1/3 innings.

"Hopefully we'll see a very good Scott Kazmir," Kazmir said. "We've been working hard the last couple of outings, side work, just trying to fix my mechanics and find really a comfort zone that I'm looking for. Everything's been good. Everything's felt like kind of like it felt in the past, in May and what-not. So (I) just look to take that out on to the field."