Rays' patchwork pen answers call to arms

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - On a night when the folks in the left-field stands caught more baseballs than anyone wearing a Red Sox or Rays uniform, the search was on for anyone who could get somebody out.

And, yes, the managers meant anybody.

It was that kind of slugfest.

Consider the numbers over the first 37 batters of the game: 11 hits, 8 for extra bases, 3 home runs, 3 walks, 8 runs.

It was 5-3, Tampa Bay, through four innings of Game 2 of the American League Championship Series, and while everyone was wondering if they would make it home for school or work Monday morning, things were about to get really wild.

That's because in the top of the fifth the Red Sox gave the scoreboard operator even more reason to worry about carpal tunnel syndrome, the frame starting thusly: home run, fly out, home run, home run, walk, walk. Tampa Bay's two-run lead was now a one-run deficit, and if you wonder why no one was answering the phone in the bullpen, it's because the mound was not exactly a safe haven, not with balls rocketing to all corners of Tropicana Field at a frightening clip.

Into that mix entered a series of unheralded Rays - lefthander J.P. Howell; a 34-year-old dinosaur named Chad Bradford, a rare submarine artist; another southpaw, Trever Miller, whose route to the big leagues weaved through 11 minor league outposts, including a 3-11 record in Pawtucket, R.I., in 2001; and another guy who has Rhode Island in his blood, Dan Wheeler.

Yes, women and children - and anyone else with concern for their well-being - were running for cover, yet Howell had no choice when manager Joe Maddon called him into that fifth-inning barrage. Starter Scott Kazmir had been shelled, and so, too, had reliever Grant Balfour failed miserably (home run, walk, walk against three batters), leaving Howell with two men on and one out. Presumably, his bosses simply told him: "Have fun, kid, and don't forget to duck."

OK, so Howell's performance won't be saved on video and shipped to Cooperstown, but he gave the Rays a huge lift by retiring Mark Kotsay and Coco Crisp to put a finger in the dike. Showing their appreciation, his mates tacked on three runs in their half of the fifth to go back on top, 8-6, which again shifted the pressure to the bullpen.

It was up to the challenge . . . relatively speaking, that is, because if you're looking for epic stuff, forget it. What Howell, Bradford, Miller, and Wheeler did was serviceable at best - but on this night, serviceable was the most Maddon could ask for after Kazmir allowed five of his 22 batters to score.

Howell did walk Dustin Pedroia in the sixth and Bradford did give up singles to Kevin Youkilis and Jason Bay to allow Boston to creep to 8-7, but as the earth rotated us into Sunday morning, the game somehow had made it to the eighth inning and Wheeler found himself with a chance to nail down this game that Tampa Bay so desperately needed. With two on and no out, Wheeler induced Youkilis to hit into a 6-4-3 double play and the Rays were within four outs of a win - until the veteran from Warwick unleashed a 2-and-0 fastball that sailed high, over the outstretched mitt of catcher Dioner Navarro.

The wildest of wild pitches scored Pedroia, and thus the wildest of wild games continued.

What didn't carry over was any sort of hangover for Wheeler, who got out of further trouble in that eighth, then went on to pitch like he hadn't in years - his 3 1/3 innings and 12 batters his longest stint since Aug. 17, 2004, when he went that far while with the Mets. Stifling stuff? Perhaps not, but surely the 6-foot-3-inch, 222-pound Wheeler provided the Rays with a bridge to a 9-8 victory that arrived in the 11th inning, 5 hours 27 minutes after it had begun.

"How about Dan Wheeler?" said Maddon. "What he did was truly spectacular."

If it was an improbable win on some fronts - the Rays had 11 hits in their first 27 at-bats; one in their next 20 - it was possible in large part because of Wheeler, a true journeyman. His 12 pro seasons have included stints with six minor league teams and three more in the majors, a period in which he has pitched in 566 games. No. 567 is the one he'll remember, though.

It began with a matchup against Youkilis, who merely had two singles and a home run in his first four at-bats, and continued with that heartbreaking wild pitch. But it included just one hit - a two-out double by Crisp in the ninth - which was negated nicely by four strikeouts, including Jacoby Ellsbury to strand Crisp, and by the time Wheeler was done, in the 11th, he had in many ways single-handedly swung the momentum back to his team.

"It's been like that all year, someone stepping up," said rookie sensation Evan Longoria, who wasn't pointing to himself, even though he was a candidate with a home run, two doubles, three runs, and three RBIs. No, he was thinking more along the lines of the guy from the Ocean State, and unheralded David Price, who relieved Wheeler in the 11th and got the win.

"The biggest guys were probably Price . . . and Wheeler giving us three-plus innings and shutting the door," Longoria said. "It was an all-around team effort."