Rays of optimism for Tampa

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Cowbells are everywhere inside Tropicana Field. The Rays insist there's no reason to add panic buttons.

No offense? No worries. At least that was the overall sentiment coming out of the Tampa Bay locker room in the aftermath of last night's American League Championship Series opener that was a showcase of great pitching, or less-than-stellar hitting, depending on your point of view.

The Rays? Hey, they're a half-full sort of team with rose-colored glasses at the ready. They'll give credit to Daisuke Matsuzaka, whose no-hit performance through six innings was the story line to Boston's 2-0 win. But they won't give in to suggestions that their offense is in a slumber.

"Our guys did a good job. It was a clean game. It was a good game. There was not a lot of hitting . . .," said Tampa Bay manager Joe Madden, who gets the gold star for understatement of the night. His club, after all, managed but four singles, yet Maddon wasn't about to dwell on the negative aspect of that.

There are indicators, however, that things are amiss - none more disconcerting than the sidelights surrounding heralded third baseman Evan Longoria. The overwhelming choice to win AL Rookie of the Year honors, Longoria wasted little time in making his presence felt in this first-ever playoff appearance for the Rays. He became the second player in baseball history to hit home runs in each of his first two postseason at-bats, but things have gone stunningly silent since that Oct. 2 victory over the White Sox.

His 0-for-4 effort last night means Longoria is hitless in his last 13 postseason at-bats and if you extend things back to his last 10 regular-season games, the big righthander is hitting .186 (11 for 58) with 22 strikeouts. No failure will stick with Longoria more than what he did in the bottom of the eighth against rookie reliever Justin Masterson. His team trailing, 2-0, Longoria had runners on first and second and the count in his favor, 2 and 0. But he swung and missed at what would have been ball three, and then ball four.

On the 2-and-2 count, Longoria grounded into a 6-4-3 double play and for a second consecutive inning, the Rays came up empty despite getting the first two runners on.

"We had some opportunities; we didn't take advantage of them," said Maddon.

No, they didn't, yet it isn't fair to thrust it all upon Longoria's shoulders, not after an improbable year in which he provided so many offensive highlights for these worst-to-first Rays.

There were, after all, the failures of three straight Rays in the bottom of the seventh. Carl Crawford had started things with his team's first hit of the game, a scorching line drive to right, and Cliff Floyd followed with his first hit in eight at-bats against Matsuzaka, sending Crawford to third. Seemingly on the ropes was the Boston righthander, but guess what? It's where Matsuzaka seemingly prefers to be, so he calmly retired Dioner Navarro on a short fly ball to left, Gabe Gross on his ninth and final strikeout, and got a third out when Jason Bartlett hit into a force play.

"He pitched well," said Floyd. "Sometimes you have to tip your hat, as much as you hate to."

While that was a crafty escape by Matsuzaka in the seventh, it wasn't any better than the one hours earlier, way back in the first inning when Matsuzaka mixed two outs in with three walks to load the bases. With cowbells ringing wildly, the Red Sox righthander got Floyd to ground out to second. No runs, no hits, three left on . . . and even worse, it's as if the Rays opened the door for Matsuzaka to get into a good rhythm.

"He made a nice adjustment," said Maddon. "They got off the breaking ball a lot more with the fastball and he had command of it tonight, so he pitched really well."

Or the Rays hit really poorly, if you take another view of things, though Maddon, to give him credit, remained aggressive.

Twice he allowed one of his power hitters to swing on 3-and-0 pitches - Longoria with two out and no one on in the sixth, Carlos Peña with two on and nobody out in the eighth. Both times, there were fly ball outs to right.

"I gave him the green light right there, absolutely," said Maddon, referring to Peña's fly out against Hideki Okajima. "I felt good about it, actually. We're down by 2 and there are two guys on. That's a three-run homer staring us in the face, so I was good with it. I've done that often with our guys in different situations, with certain guys."

In a corner of a quiet Tampa Bay locker room, hard-luck starting pitcher James Shields wouldn't second-guess his manager, nor any of his hitters who failed to rally in Game 1.

"We hit balls tonight that usually would have dropped in," said Shields. "Tonight, they didn't fall."

No one represented that despair more than Longoria, whose late-season hitting swoon continued on a night when the only Tropicana Field noise came from cowbells, not Tampa Bay lumber.