Rookie Price turned up heat

Flamethrower doused Sox hopes

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - On a young and unproven pitching staff, he was the youngest and most unproven.

The only thing is, David Price, a flamethrower who a little more than a year ago was pitching for Vanderbilt, hardly looked the part. In possession of a demeanor that matched his brilliant fastball, the 23-year-old lefthander was the fourth and final reliever out of Tampa Bay's bullpen last night and he provided an emphatic exclamation point to a 3-1 Game 7 win that blew the Red Sox into the offseason.

It was the latest stop on a wild odyssey for Price, who was the first pick in the 2007 June draft. Everywhere the lefthander went this season he was a success - undefeated at Vero Beach, at Montgomery, and 1-1 at Durham. Though he pitched in just five games and 14 innings after being brought up by the Rays, the blistering fastball was something the team was not going to do without. Price stuck for the postseason roster and stunning as it may have seemed for such a quick rise, he contributed mightily to this American League Championship Series victory.

In Game 2, Price got the Rays out of trouble in the 11th and earned the victory when his team pushed across a run in the bottom half. Though he maintained nothing more than a seat in the bullpen the next four games, when crunch time arrived last night, Price got the call. And how he delivered.

Coming in with the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth, Price faced a guy who in his brief time in Boston has proven to be an October force, J.D. Drew. On four pitches, Price blew away Drew, then after he walked Jason Bay to start the ninth, Price mowed down Mark Kotsay and Jason Varitek on strikes and Jed Lowrie on a ground ball.

"The kid came in and he pitched great," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. "He threw the ball very, very well."

Complete turnaround
It was Tampa Bay's 104th win of the season, which is 38 more than last season. In the history of major league baseball, only one team is credited with a more impressive turnaround - the 1890 Louisville Colonels. They won 88 times, 61 more than the previous season . . . Tampa Bay joins the 1914 Boston Braves and 2006 Detroit Tigers as teams that made it to the World Series after having had 10 consecutive losing seasons . . . With 96 losses in 2007, the Rays own the second-greatest turnaround of teams that made it to the World Series the next year. The 1991 Atlanta Braves won the NL pennant one year after losing 97 games . . . The Rays are the 11th expansion team to make the World Series . . . It will mark the seventh time in the last nine editions that an expansion team will be in the World Series. The exceptions are 2004 (Boston vs. St. Louis) and 2006 (Detroit vs. St. Louis).

Record pounding
Willy Aybar's leadoff home run in the seventh was Tampa Bay's 16th of the postseason, an ALCS record . . . Matt Garza started the game with earplugs he has worn on occasion when he's had a head cold. By the second inning, he had taken them out . . . The Rays struck out 57 times in the seven games. B.J. Upton had seven of them, Carlos Peña six . . . Heralded for its improved defense, Tampa Bay made the only six errors of the series . . . Bizarre stat of the series: From the 11th inning of Game 2 through the sixth inning of Game 5 - a 25-inning stretch - the Rays outscored the Red Sox, 30-5. In the other 33 innings, the Red Sox outscored Tampa Bay, 23-13 . . . This will never go down as a playoff series with any semblance of order. At Fenway Park, the Rays averaged 11.7 hits and 9.7 runs per game; at home, they averaged 6.5 hits and 3.5 runs.

Squeeze play
While neither James Shields nor manager Joe Maddon would criticize Game 6 plate umpire Derryl Cousins, the Rays thought they were on the short end of some questionable balls and strikes calls. That seemed to carry into last night's game early when Garza stared in at plate umpire Brian Gorman when David Ortiz walked on a 3-and-2 pitch in the first and from the dugout, Maddon shook his head and voiced his displeasure, too . . . An 0-and-1 pitch from Garza in the third whistled under Coco Crisp's chin and the crowd roared its approval. Since igniting a brawl by charging Shields after being hit by a pitch in a game at Fenway in June, Crisp has caught the wrath of the fans at The Trop . . . Akinori Iwamura hit .319 against Boston during the regular season, but the Red Sox handled him in the ALCS. He had four hits in his first 12 at-bats, but was 2 for 17 after that . . . No surprise given the offensive struggles of right fielder Gabe Gross (0 for 10 with five strikeouts in the ALCS, 1 for 16 in the postseason), but Maddon tabbed Rocco Baldelli to start and hit eighth against Red Sox starter Jon Lester. Maddon made the same move in Game 3, and although Baldelli hit a home run, he was 0 for 2 with a walk against Lester. His RBI single in the fifth gave the Rays a 2-1 lead . . . Maddon also put Aybar in as his designated hitter, a move he chose in the previous game against Lester. Aybar went into Game 7 hitting .375 (6 for 16) in the ALCS as opposed to the .200 average (2 for 10) put up by DH Cliff Floyd. Aybar went 2 for 3 last night . . . Shields's pickoff of Crisp in the first inning of Saturday's Game 6 was just his second of the year.