Behind Garza, Tampa able to keep Sox at bay

Rays starter Matt Garza's plan to challenge Sox hitters with his fastball was executed perfectly. (Barry Chin/Globe Staff)

If bench-clearing brawls in spring training against the Yankees and in June against the Red Sox showed that the Rays were together in this business of baseball, it was an in-house - make that an in-dugout - fight that proved they were family.

"Oldest brother against younger brother," explained catcher Dioner Navarro, brushing off questions about his confrontation with teammate Matt Garza in a June game in Texas. Garza treated that incident with similar nonchalance - "We laugh about it now," he said - but it has been suggested that the incident showed how cohesive the Tampa Bay team truly was, for it was quickly defused and wasn't allowed to fester.

Not that Garza and Navarro have lost their desire to attack. In fact, they were at it again last night - only this time they ganged up and made Red Sox hitters their target.

"That was the game plan, attack the strike zone early in the game," said Navarro.

Certainly in the thunder of two three-run home runs and a total of four shots over the Green Monster to produce a 9-1 victory, it's easy for a starting pitcher's effectiveness to be overlooked, but the Rays certainly weren't doing that.

"He pitched a gem," said left fielder Carl Crawford, and throughout both locker rooms, similar sentiments were heard. Yes, it had been a show of power - and not just from the Rays swinging the bats.

"He was throwing his fastball at times by us," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona, who knows that the tone of the game could have been dramatically different had his team capitalized early against Garza.

The Sox got a one-out double in the first from Dustin Pedroia, but Garza struck out David Ortiz and got Kevin Youkilis on a ground ball. Then in the second, runners were on second and third with one out when Garza blew away Jason Varitek on strikes and got Alex Cora on a weak fly ball.

"I told myself, 'Let them keep knocking on that door, keep knocking on that wall, but they ain't coming home,' " said Garza.

He was right, too, and by the time the Rays had built a 5-0 third-inning lead, Garza was very much in a rhythm and executing a plan. That, said pitching coach Jim Hickey, is the way the 24-year-old righthander likes to work.

"He comes to me and tells me what he's going to do, rather than having me tell him what he ought to do," said Hickey. Consider it mission accomplished, so much so that Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon waved off the three-run home runs of B.J. Upton and Rocco Baldelli and never even considered the solo shots by Evan Longoria or Carlos Peña, nor did he waste any time pointing to his club's 13 hits.

"Garza is the main reason why we won that game. I really believe in that," said Maddon, his club having pushed to a 2-1 lead in the series. "That starting pitching sets the tone. Him doing what he did tonight permitted us to get into the flow of the game, get some runs and then maintain. He did not permit them to come back."

Acquired in a trade with the Twins last November, Garza is an emotional pitcher, which in effect led to his battle with Navarro in Texas. Having shaken off his catcher's call, Garza got touched for a home run by German Duran, and when the inning was over, words were exchanged between the battery mates.

Needless to say, the incident hardly put a dent in morale, because Garza went 11-9 with a 3.70 ERA for a team that went on to win a divisional title.

Garza suggested Sunday that he and the Tampa Bay pitchers were being overlooked and that perhaps Boston's Jon Lester was getting more attention than they were. But yesterday's game was not any sort of statement, he said.

"My job wasn't to pitch against Lester. My job was to face nine hitters in that lineup," said Garza.

He handled it almost flawlessly, too, scattering six hits in six-plus innings of one-run ball. Getting out of the trouble in the first, then the second, Garza settled down and yielded just two singles between the third and sixth innings and he very much kept the Fenway crowd as quiet as the Red Sox bats. Again, all part of the plan.

"Stay hard and make them hit my fastball," said Garza, who struck out five and was pulled in the seventh after issuing his third walk and getting touched by a Cora single. "Make them beat my best pitch."

They couldn't, of course, so chalk one up for an attack mode that this time had Navarro involved as an accomplice, not a target.

"He had great stuff tonight," said Navarro.