Maddon looks to start 'em up in Game 7

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- In each of his press conferences during the postseason -- and we shudder to think that he had to do so in each of his 162 pregame clubhouse chats with the local media -- Rays manager Joe Maddon has allowed the first question posed to be about his pregame musical tastes. Baseball managers, after all, are nothing if not creatures of habit.

With the Rays having squandered a 3-1 series lead and facing a decisive seventh game tonight against the Red Sox in the American League Championship Series at Tropicana Field, the pressing matter of the day did not concern Maddon's decision to go with Rocco Baldelli over Gabe (0-for-10 ALCS) Gross in right field or with Willy Aybar over Cliff Floyd (2-for-10 ALCS) at designated hitter.

No, in the aftermath of a 4-2 loss in Game 6 Saturday night, the first question was, and we (partially) quote, "Did you have The Stones a little louder this morning?"

"Pretty much the same decibels," Maddon said. "I started with The Stones ["Start Me Up"] and moved on to The Four Tops today a little bit, a little Motown, also so we'll see how that works today."

As for the decision to with Baldelli and Aybar in his lineup? Maddon was asked if Baldelli's insertion into the lineup had to do with lefthander Jon Lester going for the Sox and whether the Rays manager gave any consideration to using him in Game 6 or, even, Game 5.

"I did consider him," Maddon said. "The thing about Rocco, though, to get him to play on a consistent basis in the outfield, we can't get that done all the time. He's not able to do it on a nightly basis.

"You're looking at [Saturday] night to tonight, also, it was a consideration for [Saturday] night, but then he would not be able to play tonight if necessary," Maddon added. "So there's a whole bunch of different variables involved in the way he's used. I've been doing it for the last month and a half or two months, something like that. So when we're trying to gauge how to use Rocco, it's a little bit different than how you gauge everybody else," because of Baldelli's bout with a mitochondrial disorder that caused him to miss the first 116 games of the season.

"Looking ahead, not that you always look ahead, but I was happy with last night's lineup, and then I knew that if it got to this point, that he would then be able to play the outfield, which would permit Willy to be the DH."

For more of Maddon's random pregame thoughts, click the link below.

* On whether it was his decision to have Don Zimmer throw out the first pitch, and if he considered having everybody rub his head -- for luck.

JOE MADDON: "First of all, I did not. That was not my suggestion. I think actually that was Stu's [Rays principal owner Stuart L. Sternberg]. From what I understand Stu is the one that approached him on it. I think it's a wonderful idea, and I'm really happy that Zim decided to go ahead and do it. I think it's great for us and obviously for him.
Actually I'd prefer that we would rub his belly. I think that would be even more in tune to what's going on. Zim is wonderful. He's been a tremendous influence on all of us on a daily basis.

For me, the thing about Zim that I think gets overlooked sometimes maybe, in my past dealing with the gentlemen that had been here before, most of the time they're here to help you in regard to evaluation, the guys that have played in the past, maybe 20 or 30 years ago. But Zim not only is good at evaluation, but he's really good in game management and understanding different thoughts within the game and suggestions, and he's really helped me a lot with that. He's given me different ideas, different thoughts.

So again, most of the time the guys that stay involved like he has, it's been primarily to evaluate. But he's very contemporary in his thoughts regarding today's game, too, and that's part of the upside of having him here."

*On whether the Rays were trying to win Game 6 with one swing of the bat?

JOE MADDON: "I didn't really glom onto that, to be honest with you. We've been swinging the bats really well. I think two things happened last night. Beckett kind of pitched differently in a sense. He threw a lot more soft curve balls, and the velocity was down like we had seen. And he was only there like for five innings, too, and we just could not get it done.

I thought Okajima, to me, has really been pitching well. He's just not an easy guy to hit a home run against, period. He pitched well against us I think all year actually, and I know he's had a little bit of a struggle at different times this year, but he's been very impressive to me.

So I don't know that I necessarily saw it. I thought Beckett did a good job of keeping us off balance, and even though he hung some curve balls, but then again, he made a great pitch with a curveball. Again, he is who he is, he's a very competitive man. But I thought the left-hander was very vital to their success last night. I don't know that we got away from our plan as much as that they pitched well against us."

* On what makes him confident the Rays will win Game 7?

JOE MADDON: "Well, I really believe in our guys, period. I believe we're very good. I believe we have a lot of talent. I believe we have a very good pitcher going into tonight.

We play the game, I think, in a very fundamental way. We've gotten a lot better in that regard. Fundamentally mentally, fundamentally physically, we've gotten so much better.

We've been through some difficult moments, like I said, over the course of this past month and this year, and again, I just think we've been very resilient. So I'm very confident that our guys will play our best game tonight, and I'm very confident we can beat the Red Sox tonight. And of course, if you didn't feel that way, why even do it in the first place.

We're doing a lot of things well. We play a pretty complete game, and I think we can beat you in a variety of different ways. But then again, it's going to be reduced to pitching and defense like it always is for us, but I know in just talking to the guys briefly in the clubhouse before I came out and I worked them on the field a little bit, I think our guys are in a good place, and I'm looking forward to tonight's game."