Now it's Tampa Bay's turn to tune out the negativity

Today, Tampa Bay designated hitter Cliff Floyd will stick with a steady diet of Nickelodeon. He will bypass all news and sports channels. He will toss the daily papers aside. Sitting beside his kids at home, Floyd will try to forget last night's devastating 8-7 loss to Boston with an overdose of "Dora the Explorer" and "SpongeBob SquarePants."

"That's how you eliminate all the stuff," said Floyd. "You can't turn on the news and see how we made history."

Until the Red Sox started a monumental comeback in the seventh inning last night at Fenway Park, the Rays appeared well on their way to the World Series. Although they lead the American League Championship Series, 3-2, the result shifted the momentum to the reigning world champions. It also raised questions about whether a young Tampa Bay team can successfully close out the series.

"We've got two games to see what we're made of," said Floyd, who made (and won) a World Series with Florida in 1997 but fell short with the New York Mets in 2006. "We win Saturday and we go to the World Series. We've got to go out there and play.

"We learned a valuable lesson tonight. Anything can happen at any given time. The only luxury we have is that we were up 3-1. The momentum has shifted to them, but we're in our house where we feel real comfortable."

In the visitors' locker room, the Rays said all the right things. They talked about the cruel unpredictability of baseball, about the importance of playing until the very last out about turning frustration into a series-clinching performance tomorrow night.

Most of all, the Rays talked about the importance of putting the loss behind them and moving on.

"If we had won it, we'd be in the World Series by now," said Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon. "We'll just have to wait one more day, hopefully, to get that done.

"It's one game. It's a loss. Obviously, we're in pretty good position to move on. If you dwell on something like that and you permit your mind to dwell in that negative mode, then nothing good can happen after that.

"Of course, we're upset. Of course, we don't like losing that game. But to dwell on it does no good whatsoever. We'll lose heart for about a half-hour or so, get on that plane, go home and then we'll come back out for Game 6 and roll it out there again.

"I'm a firm believer in that. The more you dwell on something in a negative sense, the more it can permeate your whole existence, so we're not going to do that."

Maybe Maddon will join Floyd for a SpongeBob marathon. As for the other Rays, there will be no dwelling on the fact that Josh Beckett will take the mound for Game 6.

"To us, it's irrelevant who's on the mound," said Carlos Peña, who hit his third homer of the series. "It's about what we have to do . . . In reality, it's a loss. All it is is a loss. Nothing else.

"We've got to regroup. I think the day off will be a plus. We've got learn how to be in this moment."

Added B.J. Upton: "We got beat. That's part of baseball. Anything can happen. We're looking forward to Saturday night already. A lot of guys didn't like that [what happened in Game 5]. We're eager to get back home."