The Rays will experience another first in a season of them tonight at Tropicana Field, and it could go either way. ...more

October 19, 2008

One game into the American League Championship Series, the homefield advantage the Rays carved out during a six-month season is gone. ...more

October 11, 2008

I think a polar ice cap just melted while we waited for Daisuke Matsuzaka to make another pitch. ...more

October 11, 2008

Star Of The Game: B.J. Upton Upton, who labored with a shoulder injury and had only nine home runs in the regular season, saved the brightest moments of his career for Monday. The Rays defeated the Chicago White Sox 6-2 in the clinching Game 4 of the American League Division Series. Upton's solo home runs in the first and third innings provided a 2-0 lead and the Rays never looked back. "He White Sox starter Gavin Floyd left two fastballs over the plate," Upton said. "I got them up in the air and, well, this is the Windy City for a reason." Upton was 5-for-17 in the ALDS, but he heated up at the end. There was a triple to the center-field wall in Game 2. Then came Upton's four at-bat flurry, bridging the final two games - homer, single, homer, homer. ...more

October 7, 2008

Star Of The Game: John Danks, White Sox Starter Big-game John Danks, the White Sox's left-handed starter, lived up to his billing in Sunday's 5-3 victory against Tampa Bay. The Rays collected four hits - and five base runners - in the first two innings, but only had a 1-0 lead to show for it. Danks, who defeated the Twins to win a one-game playoff for the American League Central title Tuesday, hit his rhythm in the middle innings. From the third through the sixth inning, Danks permitted only two base runners as the White Sox built their lead. Danks passed the 100-pitch mark in the seventh inning, when he allowed a two-run homer to B.J. Upton, but Chicago was in command. ...more

October 6, 2008

This is for Little Big Man. Across the Pacific, in Uwajima, Ehime prefecture, on the Japanese island of Shikoku, where Akinori Iwamura was born 29 years ago, they would have partied until dawn after his big Friday night if it wasn't already 9 in the morning Saturday. Japan is 13 hours ahead of Tropicana Field. The Rays are two games ahead of the White Sox in the AL Division Series. ...more

October 4, 2008

This one wasn't about to slip away from the Rays. Shaking off the previous evening's ninth-inning collapse, Tampa Bay put itself on the brink of clinching a playoff spot by hammering the Twins 11-1 Friday night. ...more

September 20, 2008

seven last chances to see what you'll never see again. There's only one first time in a pennant race. Just one. ...more

September 15, 2008

It took just seven pitches for LHP David Price to set the Yankees down in order in his first inning as a major-leaguer, but to hear him tell it his knees were shaking the entire time. ...more

September 15, 2008

The Rays didn't lose any ground in the standings Saturday, but the potential gains that slipped away made for a disappointing finish to their longest day of the season. ...more

September 14, 2008