Stage belonged to drama club
Rays are getting this act down
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The place shook around Dioner Navarro, cowbells clanging, music blasting, fans screaming, the kind of noise that envelops you until "you're getting goose bumps," Carlos Pena said.
And yet Navarro, the Tampa Bay Rays catcher, stood in the batter's box, the bases loaded, the score tied, and heard nothing.
"Me and the pitcher," Navarro said. "That's my thing. I try to leave everything else aside."
All night long the Rays had taken everything that stood against them - the previous night's thumping, a masterful start by Josh Beckett, 10 years of futility - and pushed it aside. So Navarro just followed along. He ripped a Justin Masterson pitch to center field with one out for a walkoff single, the final piece in Tampa Bay's reinvigorating 2-1 victory last night.
Manager Joe Maddon for months had talked to the Rays, the youngest club in baseball, about maintaining composure. They did, through a wacky ninth inning and with help from Pena's seal-busting, seventh-inning solo home run.
"Keeping your head when everybody else is losing theirs," Maddon said. "Is that Kipling? I think he said it first."
"We needed a win tonight, especially after the way we lost last night," said Navarro. "It says a lot about our team. We're always going to battle. I think of people outside weren't expecting us to bounce back. But we did."
It seemed they wouldn't the way Beckett oppressed the Rays, taking a two-hit shutout into the seventh inning. Pena came to the plate, not expecting any specific pitch because "you can't look for anything against Beckett. The biggest mistake you can do is start looking for a pitch. Because he's got five of them. I don't like the odds."
Beckett reared, and Pena recognized the pitch at the moment it left Beckett's hand - a backdoor curveball. He saw it so well, "the swing kind of happens by itself," Pena said. "You don't really have to try to force it."
The ball sailed the other way, to left field, like the game-winning home run he crushed off Mike Timlin at Fenway Park last week. Pena sprinted around first, watching Jacoby Ellsbury drift toward the fence, then leap. He landed, and the fans behind him rose - the ball had cleared the fence by a few feet.
Beckett, untouchable all night, had been cracked. The Rays dugout erupted.
"We're kids," Pena said. "If we're excited, we're going to let you know it."
The homer packed the bottom of the ninth with drama - one run and the Rays would walk off winners. Jason Bartlett started the inning with an 0-and-2 bloop off his fists to right. Pena came up again and quickly went to a 1-and-1 count. Masterson threw another strike - but wait. A wild pitch fired by Hideki Okajima in the Sox bullpen had rolled onto the field, negating the pitch. The count remained 1-and-1.
"I was like, 'Thank the Lord,' " said Pena, who worked the count and walked. Evan Longoria struck out, bringing up Cliff Floyd. Masterson went 0-and-2 again, then unleashed a fastball that smacked Floyd's right shin.
Up came Navarro. He knew his task was simple: Loft a fly ball to the outfield. He looked at two balls, then he looked for a fastball. It came, but outside, barely on the corner, and Navarro looked at strike one.
Masterson fired a breaking ball inside - "a nasty slider," Navarro said - that buckled the batter's knees. Now, with two strikes, Navarro knew Masterson might throw any pitch.
He simplified his approach; "just hit the ball up the middle," Navarro thought. Masterson blazed another pitch, 92 miles per hour. Navarro belted it to straightaway center, over Coco Crisp's head.
The Rays' 11th walkoff win this year settled into a familiar routine. Floyd hit second and doubled back to mob Navarro, the bruise on his shin still forming.
"It felt better when he hit the ball over his head," Floyd said.
Navarro circled first and tried to keep running, despite his onrushing teammates.
"I had a bad hamstring, so I couldn't run away from nobody," he said.
By the dugout, Maddon watched the pile settle by the shortstop hole, purposefully keeping his distance.
"What I learned is to stay clear of the mosh pit," he said. "You can get hurt inside one of these celebrations. I learned that early."
The Rays had vaulted back sole possession of into first place. They had withstood the Red Sox and brushed off the beatdown from a day earlier by dealing with it how they planned. They ignored it.
"The game from last night was behind us the moment it ended," Pena said. "We've been really good with that. We keep on coming."
Adam Kilgore can be reached at akilgore@globe.com. 