ST. PETERSBURG – The agonizing wait began shortly before 10 o'clock Monday night, when the Tampa Bay Rays conjured up a little bit more of the magic that has propelled them against mountainous odds the past 12 games.
With their season teetering on the brink, the remarkable reliever they have turned to time and again, Fernando Rodney, masterfully worked out of a hole he had partly created and slammed the door on the Baltimore Orioles for a 5-3 victory and his 47th save in a record-breaking year.
Yet in the end, the hole that the Rays dug for themselves at different points during the season proved too deep to climb out of.
More than three hours after their game concluded, some 3,000 miles away in Oakland, the door slammed shut on their lingering 2012 playoff hopes when the A's defeated the Texas Rangers 4-3 to clinch the final AL postseason berth.
So ended another memorable September surge by the Rays, who made up 9.5 games last year in the final month to earn a wild-card berth on the final night of the regular season.
Their win over playoff-bound Baltimore earlier in the evening gave them a remarkable 11 victories in their last 12 games – making them the hottest team in baseball – in a frantic bid to stay mathematically alive. Their only shot heading into the game Monday was to try to sweep the final three from the Orioles, and hope that AL West leader Texas could beat the second-place A's in three straight.
But it wasn't to be. The A's simply refused to cooperate, drawing out the tension by letting a 2-0 lead slip into a 2-2 tie before pulling away for a win that gives them a chance to overtake the Rangers for the division title.
The Rays and manager Joe Maddon were long gone from the Trop by the time their dream ended at just past 1 a.m. Tuesday.
But before departing, Maddon made it clear how proud he was of his players and the effort the team has given – nearly running the table in its last 12 games, outscoring its opponents 80-31 in that span with a combined ERA of 2.52. They are just one game short of their fourth straight 90-win season in the last five years, improving to a season-high 18 games over .500 at 89-71.
"Honestly, it just is what it is," he said. "We had opportunities earlier in the year to win more games and we did not. But so does everybody else. Everybody else is going to be bemoaning the same points if they don't get there at this point. So for me, it's about staying right here and keeping the blinders on. It's about moving it forward organizationally speaking. We've still got a heartbeat. Let's see what happens."
Maddon, however, insisted he had no intention of watching the Rangers-A's game on TV. To deal with the uncomfortable situation, he planned to drive home to Tampa and catch the Chicago-Dallas Monday Night Football game on his DVR.
"It's awkward, but I'll take it," he said. "It's better than the alternatives. I'm really pleased with how we're playing right now."
Monday night was no exception, when starter Alex Cobb got the Rays rolling. Cobb was simply brilliant when his team needed him the most. He came out firing, retiring the first 10 batters he faced and allowing only one hit and no runs through the first 6.1 innings – holding a 1-0 lead thanks to Ben Zobrist's 20th homer in the fourth.
His only ding was a solo homer allowed to Baltimore catcher Matt Wieters with one out in the seventh – a ball that sailed, almost tauntingly, over the lower cut-out portion of the wall in the left-field corner. It was the same spot that Evan Longoria hit his legendary walk-off homer in Game 162 last year to send the Rays into the postseason.
But in the bottom of the seventh, Tampa Bay got that run right back when Longoria grounded to third baseman Manny Machado, who couldn't find the handle and allowed the base runner to reach. Then, as he has done so often this season, Jeff Keppinger responded with a key hit – lining a ball to the opposite field in right and sending Longoria loping to third to protect his lingering hamstring injury.
With speedy Rich Thompson replacing Keppinger on first, Ben Francisco lofted a medium-distance fly to left but it turned out to be just long enough to allow Longoria to tag and slide into home ahead of the throw from Nate McLouth.
The Rays were re-energized with a 2-1 lead but not done. Sam Fuld hit a hard chopper that bounced over the outstretched glove of first baseman Mark Reynolds. Thompson scooted to third, giving Tampa Bay runners on the corners with none out. The rally nearly fizzled when Ryan Roberts popped out, but part-time catcher Chris Gimenez – getting his third straight start – stepped to the plate to face hard-throwing lefty Wei-Yin Chen.
Gimenez proceeded to line a ball into the right-field corner, scoring both Thompson and Fuld to give the Rays a 4-1 lead. He also raised his average to .357 against lefties this season (20-for-56), while hitting only .103 against righties.
"I was kind of looking out of one eye at (Orioles manager) Buck (Showalter) and the other eye at Joe seeing what they were going to do," he said. "I figured I'd go up to the plate and if (Showalter) made a move, I was probably going to get pinch-hit for. But he stuck with him – and I'm thankful he did, I'll tell you that."
Things looked even brighter for the Rays in the eighth when reliever Jake McGee mowed the O's down 1-2-3, and B.J. Upton led off the bottom of the frame with his 29th double. He moved to third on a Zobrist groundout, and scored when Carlos Pena hit into a fielder's choice for what looked like a comfortable 5-1 lead.
But as they have done so often this season, the Orioles began to make their own charge. With Kyle Farnsworth taking the mound, J.J. Hardy reached on an infield squibber to third and advanced to second on a throwing error by Longoria. The next batter, Chris Davis, rocketed a shot that hit the C-ring and dropped to the Trop turf for an automatic home run.
Suddenly, it was a 5-3 game with none out. Maddon promptly turned to Rodney. Unfortunately, he was greeted by a line-drive single to right by Adam Jones and a seeing-eye single just beyond the glove of shortstop Ben Zobrist.
The Orioles now had runners on first and second with none out and one of the game's all-time sluggers, Jim Thome, at the plate as the potential go-ahead run. But once again, Rodney reached deep with his 100 mph fastball and devastating change-up to strike out Thome and long-ball threat Reynolds, and retire pinch-hitter Endy Chavez on a come-backer to the mound.
The Rays had done their part – especially Cobb. He improved his record to 7-1 with a 3.09 ERA over his last 11 starts, raising his overall mark to 11-9 with a 4.03 ERA. More importantly, he had come through with everything riding on him.
"How about Alex Cobb?" Maddon said. "He was magnificent tonight. That was one of the best games I've seen him pitch in regards to tempo, stuff, strike-throwing, confidence, composure – everything was going tonight."
Cobb was especially pleased given how his sub-par bullpen session before the game. "Going into the bullpen tonight, I wasn't feeling very good," he said. "I had a horrible bullpen today. Once I got out on the mound and the adrenaline started going, the heat of the game took over and I was able to get in the zone a little bit and throw fastballs on both sides of the plate, and work with my off-speed."
Then there was Rodney, who has thrust himself into Cy Young Award consideration as a reliever. With yet another scoreless inning, he lowered his other-worldly ERA to 0.61 (technically 0.6053) and just a hair better than Hall of Famer and former Oakland great Dennis Eckersley's 0.61(36362).
At least for now, Rodney boasts the lowest ERA all-time by a reliever with a minimum of 50 innings. If he doesn't allow any earned runs for the remainder of the regular season, he'll own the record. His 47 saves, meanwhile, are an on-going Rays club record, and rank second this season only to the 50 by Baltimore's Jim Johnson.
"I think I've had a good season, and I've done a good job and this happened," he said. "Every record has to be broken someday. I think I have a chance this year, so I'm going to continue toward that. If I do it, that would be great."
But the mood inside the Rays' clubhouse was still muted, given the odd circumstances. Gimenez planned to go home and follow the Rangers-A's game on his computer.
"I'm the biggest Rangers fan on planet earth right now," he said.
The frustration of having to depend on Texas winning a game across the country was undeniable, especially considerably how well the Rays have played lately.
"Yeah, it is, but at the same time, we did it to ourselves," Gimenez added. "It (stinks) that it had to happen right now, because I do feel we're playing some of our best ball of the year."
"We put ourselves in this position," echoed Cobb. "There's many times throughout the season that we could have held our own destiny. … We let a couple of games slip that we wish we could have back. But we're doing all we can right now."
The A's had already jumped to a 1-0 lead before many of the Rays left the clubhouse to watch the game in private. Maddon, for one, insisted that he wouldn't even sneak a peek at the score before going to bed.
"Nope," he said. "I'm going with Monday Night Football. And then I'll find out tomorrow morning."
It's just as well he didn't look. At precisely 1:11 a.m., Tampa Bay was officially out of the playoffs for the first time since 2009. And the A's were charging onto the Coliseum field to celebrate, having captured the magic that barely eluded the Rays' grasp this season.
