Rays rough up Lester, make statement in seizing ALCS lead

Evan Longoria (right) hit a solo home run off Jon Lester to give the Rays a 5-0 lead in the third inning. Al Tielemans/SI Related Links Rays pop Red Sox 9-1 to take 2-1 lead in ALCS John Donovan's Mailbag Comments, questions or obviously unfounded criticism? To e-mail Donovan, use the form below. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

BOSTON -- Downplay it all you want. After Game 3 of the American League Championship Series on Monday, that's what both the Rays and the Red Sox tried to do.

But let's not be fooled here. Tampa Bay's 9-1 win Monday night in Fenway Park was hugely important. Perhaps history-making important. The Rays just took down Boston's best pitcher. Beat him like a dirty rug. Knocked him around the park as if he had "Rawlings" stamped on his backside.

And Tuesday night, in Game 4 of the ALCS, Tampa Bay will take its swings against Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, who hasn't exactly been Mr. October in recent years. Wakefield hasn't pitched in this postseason yet, but in his last nine playoff games, going back to the start of the 2003 ALCS, Wakefield is just 3-3. He has a 6.43 ERA.

This is where we stand in an ALCS that was practically unseeable four months ago. The Rays are up two games to one in the best-of-seven series. They've wrested home-field advantage back from the Sox. They just made Jon Lester, the undisputed ace of the Sox, look like a joker.

Doesn't all of that say something? Anything?

"It doesn't say a thing," Tampa Bay reliever J.P. Howell said through his teeth -- with a straight face, even -- after the game. "Their 2, 3, 4 and 5 guys are all pretty good, too."

And, from Boston reliever Paul Byrd, who also was treated rudely by the Rays on Monday: "I was playing against these guys up 3-1 last year [with the Indians]. I've seen what they can do."

True, the Red Sox are a long way from being counted out. The same franchise that crawled from a 3-0 hole against the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS and from that 3-1 crater against Cleveland in last year's ALCS will be hard to bury.

But Monday, the relentless Rays looked exactly like the type of team that could do it, a team that hits when it needs to (the Rays had 13 hits, giving them 25 in the last two games, and pounded four home runs), pitches well (starter Matt Garza absolutely flummoxed the Sox) and plays a beautiful defense (they turned a stellar 5-4-3 double play in the seventh). The Rays, right now, are a team that does just about everything well.

The Sox, on the other hand, look like a team practically incapable of pulling off what its predecessors have done. Boston scored eight runs in Saturday night's 9-8, 11-inning loss. But with a limping lineup filled with holes that are getting bigger by the moment, the Sox have managed just three runs in the other two games. David Ortiz is still looking for his first ALCS hit (0-for-10). So is leadoff man Jacoby Ellsbury (0-for-14). So is catcher Jason Varitek (zip-for-10).

"Right now," said Sox outfielder Jason Bay in the most straightforward comment to come out of Boston's clubhouse after the loss, "we don't have everyone firing on all cylinders."

As weak as the Boston lineup has been, the failure of Lester on Monday was even more stunning. The 24-year-old lefty had not allowed a run against Tampa Bay in his last 12 innings. He was 3-0 with an 0.90 ERA against the Rays this year. He had never lost to Tampa Bay, in fact, and he had not allowed an earned run in his last 22 1/3 postseason innings, including all 14 this year.

When he started firing fastballs at the Rays in the first inning and put them down 1-2-3 -- on four pitches, no less -- things did not look good for the visitors.

But the Rays, swinging aggressively from the start, touched Lester for a run in the second inning, and in the third they mauled him for four more, including a park-clearing three-run homer by centerfielder B.J. Upton and a solo shot by third baseman Evan Longoria. It was the second homer of the ALCS for each player.

"[Lester] is very good. Don't be deceived. He's very good," said Rays manager Joe Maddon, maybe looking ahead to a possible Game 7 rematch with Lester. "We just had a relatively good night. We had some good at-bats at some crucial moments."

That's all the Rays put up on Lester, who lasted 5 2/3 innings. But that was plenty with the start that the righty Garza gave them.

For days, Garza had simply listened to the praise -- the rightful praise -- for Lester. In contrast, Garza had been painted -- also rightfully -- as alternately brilliant and baffling. His postseason resume consists of one start in the division series against the White Sox on Oct. 5. It was the Rays' only loss, with Garza giving up five runs in six erratic innings.

After his tour de force Monday, he pish-poshed the days-long slight to his reputation everyone did by building up Lester. "My job wasn't to pitch against Lester," Garza said. "My job was to face nine hitters in that lineup, and that was it."

But in the Rays clubhouse, his pitching coach, Jim Hickey, wasn't nearly so sure that the perceived knock on his pitcher wasn't used as a motivating force. "All the buildup with Jon Lester trying to go 99-0 or whatever," Hickey said, "[Garza] was determined to pitch well."

Garza threw 116 pitches over six innings, gave up six hits and allowed only a seventh-inning run. He pitched out of trouble in the first (getting Ortiz and Kevin Youkilis with a man on second and one out), in the second (getting Varitek and Alex Cora with a man on second and one out) and, in the third, he completely fooled Youkilis, Boston's best hitter, with a man on second and two outs. Youkilis checked his swing three times in that at-bat, striking out to end the inning.

"He's got great stuff. The only question is if he gets it in the zone," Howell said of Garza. "That's the way we want to see him every time out."

Howell took over and gave up just one hit in two innings, Edwin Jackson pitched the ninth and the Rays got two more home runs off Boston's Byrd, a three-run job from right fielder Rocco Baldelli and a solo job from first baseman Carlos Pena. Tampa Bay flashed some fine glovework, too. In the seventh, Dustin Pedroia -- hitting .545 this series -- sent a bouncer to third that Longoria charged and flipped across his body to second. Second baseman Akinori Iwamura, standing flatfooted, snapped off a hard, quick throw to first to complete the double play.

The Rays lost their first seven games in Fenway Park this season before finally breaking through with wins in the final two games of a three-game series in September. Monday's beatdown makes three wins in a row here for Tampa Bay and ensures that, at the very least, the Rays will head back to Tampa Bay for a Game 6 in this series Saturday. It's not terrible if the Rays have to go home to finish this thing; they had the best home record in baseball this year.

The way the Sox are hitting, though, and with the shaky Wakefield pitching Tuesday night -- he was 10-11 this season, with a 4.57 ERA -- the Sox are a long way from being assured of getting the series back to Tampa Bay. After a day off Wednesday, Game 5, the last one at Fenway Park, is scheduled for Thursday.

"The only thing this changes," said the shortstop Cora, subbing Monday for rookie Jed Lowrie, who had gone 0-for-6 in starting the first two games, "is we have to fly back to Florida now."

At this point, the Sox had better hope they get that far.