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Roger Mooney

Roger Mooney covers the Tampa Bay Rays for The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com and News Channel 8. He has covered the Rays since their first season in 1998, including 11 years for the Bradenton Herald. Roger has also covered Florida, South Florida and Florida State football, the Bucs and the Lightning.

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Price vs. Sabathia, Yankees vs. Rays, First place vs Wild Card: Buckle-up

Posted Sep 13, 2010 by Roger Mooney

Updated Sep 13, 2010 at 05:41 AM

David Price wants tonight’s match-up with CC Sabathia to be a preview of Game 1 of the ALCS

ROGER MOONEY
ST. PETERSBURG – A couple of weeks ago when it was David Price vs. the Rangers Cliff Lee at the Trop in a game that featured two of the top left-handed pitchers in baseball in the opener of a three-game series that could possibly be a playoff preview, Rays manager Joe Maddon said it couldn’t get any better than that.

Well, guess what?

“We actually topped it,” Maddon said Sunday before the Rays dropped the final game of a nine-game road trip in Toronto.

Tonight it’s 17-game winner Price vs. 19-game winner CC Sabathia as the second place Rays open a three-game series with the first place Yankees.

The Yankees, swept in Texas over the weekend, hold a half-game lead over the Rays, who hold a comfortable lead in the Wild Card standings.

But who wants to win the Wild Card?

“Both of us are in a driver’s seat,” Evan Longoria said. “They’re in a better seat than we are, but we are in good position to get into the playoffs one way or another, but the division is still within reach, within close reach. That should be the goal right now.”

The Rays want the AL East title and the homefield advantage in the playoffs that will come with that title.

“I truly believe, truly believe winning the division is the ultimate goal,” Maddon said. “You want to win your division first then reap the benefits of that afterwards. We’ve played better on the road, but I would much prefer if we get into the playoffs we start at home and have some kind of homefield advantage throughout the whole playoffs. I think there’s a tremendous advantage to that.”

The Rays learned in 2008 just how much homefield matters in the playoffs.

After shocking the baseball world by winning the AL East, the Rays opened the ALDS at the Trop with two wins against the White Sox.

They split their four home games with the Red Sox in the ALCS, but they won Game 7 at the Trop, which, of course, was the most important win.

The Rays finished just shy of .500 on the road in 2008. This year they are the kings of the road with a major league-best 43-30 road record.

So, yes, they are no longer skittish about playing on the road.

But who wants to go to Minnesota or Texas to open the ALDS? Or return for a Game 5 if necessary?

And who wants to play the first two games of the ALCS at Yankee Stadium? And who wants to return to the Bronx for a possible Game 7?

Best to avoid those situations.

That’s why this series is so big.

And the four games next week in New York between these two teams.

“It’s going to come down to who wins at home,” Longoria said. “That’s who wins in the playoffs, whoever gets that homefield advantage and being able to capitalize on that.”

It starts tonight with a matchup of two of the best left-handers in the game, the front runners for the Cy Young Award and perhaps, the Game 1 starters of the ALCS.

The Rays went through a similar situation in September of 2008 when they played the Red Sox six times in the span of 10 days, winning four of them, including two at Fenway Park.

Those were the first two wins the Rays recorded in Boston that season. They are 3-2 at Yankee Stadium this year, so they know they can win there.

Of course, they’ve never played the Yankees in this kind of pressure-cooker. The Bombers were not much of an issue in 2008.

But now they are the defending World Series champions, and they hold that lead, however slim, against the Rays.

These three games will be played with playoff-type intensity. So will the four games next week.

Maddon doesn’t expect either team to pull away from the other.

This race for the division title could very well go down to the final weekend of the season when the Rays visit Kansas City for four games.

“I would bet yes,” Maddon said. “I would absolutely bet yes if I had to, there’s going to be something riding on that series.”

So these seven games with the Yankees are important.

“Huge,” Price said.

But tonight’s outcome doesn’t decide anything.

The Rays learned that in ’08 when they dropped the first two games in each of those two series with the Red Sox. Boston moved to within a half-game of the Rays after winning the first game at Fenway Park during the first series and moved to within percentage points the following Monday when they crushed the Rays at the Trop.

And the Rays survived both times.

So the advantage gained by the winner will last until the first pitch the following night.

“Every game every night is so involved. I don’t know if there’s any advantage gained,” Maddon said. “Whoever plays the game better on that night has that shot, because nobody is giving anything up. Nobody is going to worry about yesterday if you got butt kicked or lost by one point. Nobody worries about that today. That’s one thing that 2008 taught me. Man, you got to grind it out against a real good team that you may play them up to 25 times (during the season and playoffs) to get to the World Series. That’s ridiculous, but it’s true.”

Three games with the Yankees this week.

Four games at Yankee Stadium next week.

Maybe seven more in October.

“It’s what it’s about at this time of year,” Price said. “Big series. Big game.”

Big pitchers.  Big night.

Buckle-up.