Down night for Upton
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Hope you took a couple of aspirin and got a good night's sleep, B.J. Upton.
You must have fought off a killer headache from the nightmare of a game you had last night before a capacity crowd of 40,783 cowbell ringers at Tropicana Field. The one good thing about all four of your at-bats was that there were no cowbells. Every one of them left The Trop silent.
For one of the hottest hitters in the postseason - .304, 7 home runs, and 15 RBIs in 11 games coming in - this was highly unexpected. If someone was going to carry the day for the Rays, the best bet was you, B.J. You've got the speed, the pop, the capacity to do great things, but it was one of those "come down to Earth" nights for you.
Let's review:
In the first inning, with the Phillies already leading, 2-0, and after Rays leadoff man Akinori Iwamura reached on an infield hit, you knocked into a double play.
In the third inning, with the bases loaded and one out, you knocked into a 5-4-3, rally-killing double play.
In the fifth, Iwamura's double knocked in Jason Bartlett with the Rays' second run. It was 3-2 with two on and two out. One bloody hit and the game is tied. What are you going to do, B.J.? A foul pop to first base.
Eighth inning, nobody on, two outs, trailing by a run. Maybe a home run here? Nope. Strikeout swinging. With a nice flip of the helmet before taking your position in center field.
You knew there'd be nights like these. Facing Cole Hamels, you knew it wasn't going to be easy. This was the one game we expected the Phillies to win, because of Hamels, who went seven innings and allowed two runs on five hits. If the Phillies didn't take this game, the World Series might have been over quickly, but now, B.J., you must shake off the worst postseason game of your short career and lead this team.
"It was just good baseball," said Upton. "[Hamels] made great pitches. He didn't make any mistakes. The ones he left over a little bit, I couldn't do anything with. That's just the way it goes sometimes."
Too much to put on one man's shoulders? For sure. There was a lot of blame to go around.
Save for Carl Crawford's fourth-inning solo homer, the Rays, who usually hit well at home, could do little against Hamels, who is emerging as the best lefthander in this postseason. He has gone beyond Jon Lester, Mark Buehrle, and last night's Tampa Bay starter, Scott Kazmir, as the top southpaw in the playoffs, no small feat considering the number of strong lefthanded hitters.
But Upton is righthanded. The kid - and he is only 24 - had a chance to do something memorable. We talk about guys who can do that in big moments. Manny Ramírez, for one. David Ortiz has been that in the past, and Upton himself had shown those qualities in the Division Series and League Championship Series.
But this is the big show, against a big-time pitcher, and he came up in situations where he could have shown the world that he's The Man. Instead, he looked like a kid against a real man throwing changeups, sliders, and curveballs.
There's no doubt that going into this series, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel told his pitching staff to beware of Upton. But Hamels kept him off balance, never making the one mistake on which Upton could have turned around the Rays' fortunes. It was just a one-run game, so one hit, one mistake by Hamels, and the Rays might have pulled it out.
Upton, with all his ability, was benched or pulled out of games by manager Joe Maddon on three occasions this season. On last night's double-play grounders, it didn't appear Upton ran all out, but he disputed that.
"On the second one, the ball was at second base by the time I even got out of the box. I hit it hard and it was just a tailor-made double play," said Upton. "Nothing I can do on that one. I ran hard on both of them. The first one was a check swing and I didn't mean to hit it."
Rookie third baseman Evan Longoria absolved Upton of blame, saying, "It was nothing that B.J. did. It was Hamels pitching such a great game." Longoria went as far as to say, "Tomorrow is a must-win for us."
Upton and his teammates didn't believe the Rays were tight, as they might have been early in the ALCS against Boston. They rebounded to beat the Red Sox in seven games. Longoria, Upton, and Carlos Peña all thought there was life in the clubhouse before and during the game.
"This was probably the loosest we've been before a game," Longoria said.
Upton's night wasn't all bad. He made a great throw from center in the second inning to nail Shane Victorino at the plate on Jimmy Rollins's fly ball. But that was the only highlight.
Upton iced his shoulder after the game, took a whirlpool, and took his time coming out to speak to the media. He might have needed time to cool off, to recuperate from one of the worst nights he'll likely have as a professional. But he seemed cool as he spoke to reporters, giving credit to Hamels and the Phillies, who showed no signs of rust after a long layoff since they eliminated the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games in the NLCS.
Are the Rays, who had a long, hard-fought battle with the Red Sox, tired?
"We're fine," said Upton. "This team is going to be fine."
After the aspirin. After a good night's sleep.
Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com. 