Start was not Rays' problem

Kazmir pitched in; bullpen collapsed

If the Rays continue to waste pitching in the American League Championship Series against the Red Sox, they'll have to go back to being the Devil Rays. There was no absolution for the youthful AL East champions - their bullpen, in particular - in last night's stinging 8-7 setback in Game 5 before a Fenway Park crowd of 38,437.

With his team in control of a 3-1 series lead, Rays manager Joe Maddon was roundly questioned for his decision Wednesday to go with lefthander Scott Kazmir over James Shields in Game 5. The thinking was Maddon had given the Sox an opportunity to stave off elimination. Kazmir was roughed up for five runs in 4 1/3 innings by the Sox in Game 2.

But with the Rays holding a 7-0 lead and nine outs from popping the bubbly in the visitors' clubhouse, Maddon had to feel good about going to his bullpen after Kazmir had pitched six scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and three walks. He had seven strikeouts on 111 pitches, 62 for strikes.

It was Maddon's plan to use a full complement of well-rested relievers to support Kazmir, in the event his third postseason start wound up being as rocky as his first two, when it took him 37 pitches to get out of the first inning of his Division Series start against the White Sox and 38 in Game 2 against the Sox.

But, just as was the case in Game 1, the Rays' bullpen squandered not only Kazmir's efforts, but the 7-0 lead he handed to the relievers. Grant Balfour, Dan Wheeler, and J.P. Howell combined to blow it in the final three innings by giving up eight runs on nine hits.

"We wasted good starting pitching tonight, yeah," Maddon said. "The game is so ironic because the question was there [about the decision to go with Kazmir over Shields] and then you feel very comfortable about the bullpen and then the game flipped tonight.

"So go figure."

Balfour was the first to be summoned in the seventh and proceeded to give up a leadoff double to Jed Lowrie. After getting Jason Varitek and Mark Kotsay to fly to center, Balfour allowed a single to left to Coco Crisp, putting men on the corners. Dustin Pedroia followed with an RBI single to right to score Lowrie with the first Sox run.

Balfour was chased when he gave up a towering three-run homer to David Ortiz, who drove a 97-mile-per-hour fastball into the stands in right field, whittling Tampa's lead to 7-4.

"I'm very frustrated with myself right now," Balfour said. "I could put a hole through every locker right now, I'm pretty frustrated. But it's over now and I've got to forget that."

Wheeler, who gave the Rays 4 1/3 innings of scoreless relief in last Saturday night's 9-8 victory in 11 innings in Game 3, couldn't hold the line in his 1 1/3 innings. He gave up a two-run homer to J.D. Drew in a three-run eighth that tied it at 7-7.

Howell, the 25-year-old lefthander, relieved Wheeler in the ninth to face the heart of the Sox order and got two quick outs when he induced Pedroia to ground out to shortstop J.B. Bartlett and fanned Ortiz (swinging), but he was overextended by Youkilis on a 10-pitch at-bat in which the Sox third baseman fouled off four pitches with two strikes.

"That was a great at-bat, man," Howell said. "I kept trying to challenge him with curveballs and heaters and he kept fouling them off. He showed a lot of will. He willed that at-bat and got on base. Youk, that's what he does. He's real thickheaded and you've got to do a lot to get in his head, so that was a good battle."

Youkilis, who reached, then advanced to second on a throwing error by Rays third baseman Evan Longoria, scored the winning run on Drew's RBI single to right off Howell.

"It was a changeup away," Howell said. "I thought the best thing [Drew] could do was yank it foul or miss it, but he stayed on it good."

Asked if he sensed his team seized up from nerves, Maddon said, "I thought we were pretty good. I thought we came back with [Upton's] hit and Aki [Iwamura] flies out and we draw a walk and Carlos [Peña] hits it hard. I mean, Masterson hits a ton of those ground balls, very high double play ratio with him. Again, listen, we lost. They came back and they beat us. By the time we get to the airport, these guys are going to be fine and when we come out for the next game, I expect us to be business as usual."