Rays are trying to do the 'impossible' again

The 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox were a band of kids who played with reckless abandon every day for rough-and-tough manager Dick Williams. They survived their dips to win the American League pennant, though they lost the World Series in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals. The similarities to the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays are uncanny.

The journey was far grander than the final outcome.

Of course, the Rays, who now have lost four straight, must win something first - whether it's the division or a wild card. Right now, their AL East lead over Boston is perilously thin - a half-game - following a 3-0 loss to the Red Sox last night, when Jon Lester went through the Rays lineup like a man among boys.

The one hurdle the Rays just can't seem to clear is beating the Red Sox at Fenway, where they've lost all seven games this season.

Rays manager Joe Maddon continually has preached urgency, yet last night, when his team couldn't have hit Lester with a hundred bats, he didn't seem to be panicking.

"Yeah, we've got to hit better, no question," said Maddon. "I'm looking at the quality of our play. It's very good. We're just not hitting right now. To be confused and say we're not playing well . . . we are playing well, we just aren't hitting right now, and that will come."

Sooner, they must hope, rather than later.

The Rays try hard to come off as carefree and enjoying the moment, but they held a 20-minute players-only meeting before the game, as they arrived in Boston after being swept in Toronto.

"It was needed," said outfielder Cliff Floyd. "It was basically to end the season on a good note - that was it - with nothing in the tank. Just to make sure we're all on the same page.

"It was great, something that was definitely needed. It had nothing that had to do with us losing any games. I'm not saying you're going to see anything different, I'm just saying it was good for our team to have a little sit-down and a little conversation from a family standpoint, and we achieved that.

"We all had good laughs, and we all understood what's at stake. Not that we didn't know, but we solidified some things."

It didn't look that way as Lester was mowing them down, inning after inning.

"We've got to beat the odds and then beat the adversity," said Floyd, "and if we do that, there'll be some bottles popping pretty soon here."

The champagne cart seemed far away from the Rays' clubhouse last night. During this four-game dip - in which the "devil" seemingly has returned to mess with the Rays - the words "fading" and "slipping" are starting to appear in the headlines. But the Rays claim they pay no attention.

"We really don't care what's written about us," said Eric Hinske, the former Sox utilityman. "It makes no difference to how we approach our season and the game. We're out there having fun.

"Sure, we would have loved to have done better in Toronto because we need to win series, but nobody in this room is panicking about anything."

At some point, something has to give. The Rays can't keep getting swept here, just as the Red Sox can't keep getting swept at The Trop.

"No team likes to come in here and play," said Rhode Islander Rocco Baldelli, who struck out four times last night, "just like no team likes to come into Tropicana to play us."

"I was joking to some reporters that the odds are now in our favor at Fenway," said Haverhill native Carlos Pena.

Pena, who played briefly for the Red Sox in 2006 and hit a walkoff home run at Fenway, said he hopes at some point he could hit a homer to beat the Sox in this ballpark. The Rays need all of the special things that have happened for them this season to happen right here during this series.

"We don't look at anything outside of this clubhouse and ourselves," said Pena. "We're a team and that's the most important thing. There's been a lot of positive stuff written about us and we're thankful for that, but we haven't paid much attention to that, just as we haven't paid much attention to the stuff written about us when we're losing.

"I've just never seen this much chemistry on any team I've been on. This is a family. It's going to feel so much better coming from scratch. We didn't buy anything. Tampa Bay Rays is homegrown. I love that feeling. We're all enjoying the possibility of being in the postseason."

Boston loved that feeling in '67, but you have to survive the hard times. Maddon referenced the 1983 Orioles as a team that had two seven-game losing streaks yet won the World Series. He doesn't envision a horrible slide that takes the Rays out completely.

"We played really well and lost," Maddon said. "It's going to turn in our favor." He added, "If you believe in what you do."

That part is unwavering. You can hear it in the voices of Pena, Hinske, Floyd, and Baldelli, just as you could hear it 41 years ago from Yaz and Petrocelli, Lonborg and Tony C.

While Williams was the task-master of the '67 Sox, Maddon has been strong and stern, especially regarding his approach to B.J. Upton during a stretch in which the young center fielder wasn't running out ground balls.

"After a tough loss, I've never seen him slam a door or a close a door [to his office]," Pena said. "That's a special man. In my opinion, he's the Manager of the Year."

The feel-good stories are everywhere. The Baldelli saga has been inspiring to his teammates, who watched him struggle with his mitochondrial disorder, which can make his legs too fatigued to play. Only lately has Baldelli been able to contribute in a part-time role as a DH and right fielder.

While fan support in their hometown is flimsy, the rest of the country seems to be rooting for them. They are the 1967 Sox, the 1980 US hockey team, the 2001 Patriots all rolled into one.

Or are they?

The Rays, who got themselves together right after the All-Star break after losing seven straight, must now show that same resilience. The stakes are high - a place alongside some of the most beloved Cinderella sports stories of this generation.

Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com.