Daily Loaf

Tropicana Field got some nice new interior decorating last night: two pennant-shaped flags, simple blue letters on a white background, flying high in left field, guaranteed never to get weathered and never to flap in the breeze.They read:

• AL East 2008 Champions

• American League 2008 Champions

(I would have liked to insert a photo of them here, but the CL house camera lacks a telephoto lens. I snapped this pic of B.J. Upton, Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria during batting practice; it’ll have to suffice.)

The Tampa Bay Rays raised the banners in a pomp-filled pregame ceremony, every bit of which the team and the town and the sold-out crowd deserved. In a nice touch, several Rays players carried the rolled-up flags from the dugout to left field for their ascension to the rafters.

The rest of the night went according to script: The Rays trounced — or is that pounded, or slaughtered? — the New York Yankees 15-5, and had the mercy rule had been in effect, New York might not have put up some late-inning runs.

The night was kissed by the fates. In the bottom of the 6th inning, with the game firmly in hand, Akinori Iwamura stubbed a ball off the end of his bat and it rolled down the third base line. It rolled, and rolled some more, then rolled slower. Yankees hovered around it, willing it to go foul. It never did. The ball stopped a few feet from third base, about three inches fair, having followed a snap line for about 10 yards.

It was that kind of night.

B.J. Upton, playing in his first game this year after rehabbing his shoulder, opened the game by walking, stealing second, then stealing third in a double steal with fellow jet Carl Crawford. It was that kind of night.

Upton made a sprinting, back-toward-home-plate, over-the-head, Willie Mays-style basket catch to rob the Yankees of a potential rally. Later Crawford jumped high in left field and caught one at the wall.

Carlos Pena hit a grand slam and drove in six total runs. New Ray Pat Burrell added a round-tripper. Evan Longoria, the Rays mauler on their first road trip, didn’t have a spectacular game, but drew a bases-loaded walk to bring in a run, stroked a single and went 1 for 3 (dropping his average to .467) with 2 RBI.

Scott Kamir gave up three runs and six hits in 6-2/3 innings to bring his record to 2-0 with a 2.84 ERA. Rather than changing pitchers after the sixth inning, manager Joe Maddon let Kaz get two outs in the 7th so that the lefty could walk off the field to thunderous applause.

(His counterpart, the Yankees Chien-Ming Wang, was chased early and has an 0-2 record with a 28.93 ERA. I was sitting next to a reporter for a Taiwan newspaper whose job it is to exclusively cover Chien-Ming Wang, and let’s just say the poor fella wasn’t looking forward to his post-game interview with the already-introvered pitcher.)

So, the Rays look like anything but one-hit-wonders. But I’ll end this post with the obligatory cautionary note: There are 155 games left in the regular season.

I’ve got some video from last night that we’ll be posting pretty soon, so stay tuned for a couple more Rays posts.

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