Tampa Bay Rays Baseball Team

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- It took Gary DiSarcina one series in Tropicana Field during Tampa Bay's inaugural season in 1998 to coin perhaps the best description for games played in the catwalk-ringed, bandbox of a domed stadium. "It's arena baseball," the former Angels shortstop said. The Boston Red Sox and Rays provided the latest reminder of how zany indoor baseball here can be, turning Game 2 of the American League Championship Series into a home run derby Saturday night.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The Red Sox insist Josh Beckett is sound, that the right-hander is fully recovered from a rib-cage strain he suffered in late September, but the evidence hardly supports their case. Beckett, as well as his reputation as the Mr. October of pitchers, took another beating Saturday night, the Rays pounding the erstwhile playoff ace for eight runs and nine hits, including three home runs, in 4 1/3 innings of Game 2.

BOSTON -- Tampa Bay's 13-4 manhandling of the Boston Red Sox in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series on Tuesday night left Fenway Park's famed Green Monster begging for mercy and executives at the Fox Network gnashing their teeth. A Dodgers-Red Sox World Series would be a ratings bonanza for Fox, which would be so amped up about a Manny Ramirez-returns-to-Boston angle it would probably try to rig the Dodgers left fielder with a Manny-cam. A Tampa Bay-Philadelphia World Series?

BOSTON -- Coco Crisp saw fans heading for the exits in Fenway Park on Thursday night with the home team trailing by seven runs in the seventh inning, and the Boston Red Sox center fielder couldn't really blame them. "I guess down seven in the seventh, most of the time you don't come back from that," Crisp said. "I know they're home kicking themselves in the butt, like, 'Gosh, I just left an instant classic.' The fans that stayed are out here partying, cheering." And the Red Sox?

BOSTON -- The Red Sox faced a three-games-to-one deficit in the American League Championship Series on Thursday night, and who better to extricate them from a seemingly impossible predicament than Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Japanese right-hander and escape artist? But not even Matsuzaka, who threw six no-hit innings in a Game 1 victory over Tampa Bay and has an uncanny knack for pitching his way out of jams, could slow the Rays. Akinori Iwamura led off the game with a single to right, and B.J.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Joe Maddon, manager of the Angels' double-A affiliate at Midland, Texas, in 1986, was in Anaheim Stadium, a few rows behind the first base dugout, for Game 5 of the American League Championship Series that October. The Angels, with a three-games-to-one advantage, took a 5-2 lead into the ninth inning and were one out away from what would have been their first World Series berth when Dave Henderson hit a two-run home run off Donnie Moore to cap Boston's four-run rally.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The Tampa Bay Rays should have snuffed out the Boston Red Sox when they had the chance. They let them up for air in Game 5, their failure to hold a seven-run, seventh-inning lead preventing them from clinching a World Series berth, and now they're the team that is reeling, gasping for breath in the American League Championship Series.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- This won't be the last we see of the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays battling it out for the American League East title or even playing each other in the AL Championship Series. Boston has talented young players it can supplement with high-priced free-agent and trade acquisitions, thanks to a generous payroll that reached $133 million this season. Tampa Bay, despite its $48-million payroll, has some of the game's best young position players in B.J.

Phillies The Phillies can play power ball and little ball, although they have not played American League ball very well. They ranked second in the National League in home runs and third in stolen bases, but they lost 11 of 15 games in interleague play. The Angels swept them, and they lost two of three to Oakland, Toronto, Texas and Boston. Ryan Howard led the major leagues with 48 home runs during the regular season; he has none in the playoffs.

Jimmy Rollins played his high school games at Willie Stargell Field. The sign said so. "I thought he was some guy that must have given a lot of money," Rollins said. Stargell was one of the greatest players in baseball history, but Rollins grew up among a generation of African American youth that paid little attention to baseball.