Manager Lou Piniella has an interesting reference point for the 2004 Rays season - the giant Thunder Dolphin roller coaster outside the Tokyo Dome where they played their first game.
Much like the 26-story "coaster, the Rays went up and down.
Way up and way down.
The season was probably best branded by two two-week periods - the Rays had a 12-game winning streak, matching the longest in the majors this season, and a 12-game losing streak, matching the second longest in the majors this season. Only one other team in history, the 1987 Brewers, ever had two streaks of that length in the same season.
The winning streak was something new - the Rays had never won more than six straight. No team won 12 in a row after getting as deep into a season with as poor a record as the Rays had at the start (21-34) or coming off a 99-loss season. And only three teams ever did coming off last-place finishes.
The losing streak wasn't that unusual. The Rays had a 15-game skid in 2002, an 11-gamer in 1998 and a 10-gamer in 2000. Before the 12-game streak this season, they lost seven straight once, six twice and five three times.
WOULDN'T KIMONOS HAVE BEEN BETTER?
The Rays had some good steaks, some hard-to-identify seafood and some interesting experiences during their whirlwind season-opening trip to Japan. While it wasn't as bad as the intestinal parasites some of the Yankees claimed to contract, the Rays did bring back a horrid offensive slump.
In their first 38 games, they scored one or no runs 12 times, two runs or fewer 16 times and three or fewer 21 times. They went 34 innings without an extra-base hit, 30 innings without an earned run, 19 innings without scoring. And they lost 28 times.
Geoff Blum finally did something about it before the May 20 game, having the Japan series T-shirts taken out of each hitter's locker. "Straight to the garbage," he said. Did it matter? For a while. The Rays went 23-6 after that, and had more than 5.5 runs a game.
ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH
The Rays had a hard time winning at the start of the season. They had an even harder time winning twice in a row. It took the Rays until their 40th game (on May 21!) to record back-to-back victories, the longest such streak in the AL since 1988 and matching the fifth longest since 1900. Along the way, they alternated wins and losses through the first 10 games, the first team to do that since the 1997 Yankees.
QUARTER-MILERS
The Rays sizzled through a quarter of the season with a 30-10 run. In the past five years, 10 other teams won at least 30 times in a 40-game stretch. All 10 went to the playoffs.
ROAD WARRIORS
The Rays had plenty of trouble away from the Trop, their 27-51 road record among the worst in the majors. But they seemed to pick their spots, beating some of the majors' best pitchers on their home turf. They beat Randy Johnson in Arizona, Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling in Boston, Carl Pavano in Florida, and Brad Radke and Johan Santana (on consecutive days) in Minnesota. ... Rays pitcher Dewon Brazelton, meanwhile, went 0-5 in road starts, making his career record away from Tropicana Field 0-11 in 15 starts.
THE WICKED NOR'EASTER
Wondering if the Rays would be better off outside the AL East? Consider this:
W-L vs. Red Sox/Yankees: 9-29
W-L vs. all other teams: 60-62
THE .500 CLUB
When the Rays beat the Marlins June 25 to even their record at 35-35, they joined the 1899 Louisville Colonels as the only teams to make it back to .500 after being at least 18 games under. When they won again the next night, they stood alone as the only team in MLB history - or NBA and NHL history for that matter - to get over .500 after being that far under.
FORGET UGLY, HOW ABOUT WINNING WEIRD?
* The Rays won a June 11 game when Rey Sanchez hit a 10th-inning, walkoff inside-the-park home run, the first game to end that way in nearly three years.
* They won an Aug. 6 game when umpires sent Carl Crawford home from third after deciding Seattle shortstop Jose Lopez intentionally obstructed Crawford's view of a fly ball being caught in leftfield.
* They won a Sept. 25 game that because of the pending arrival of Hurricane Jeanne was played under a curfew, the first major-league game with a time limit since April 6, 1998, when a Cleveland-Oakland game was stopped at 1:22 a.m.
EVERYTHING HAS ITS PLACE
The Rays have been up and down the AL standings. A look at their number of days, through Saturday, in each place:
First - 9
Second - 6
Third - 64
Fourth - 63
Fifth - 42
HURRICANE PARTY
Until this season, there had been only three occasions when a game in a dome stadium was postponed or canceled due to weather, including a Sept. 17, 2000, date at the Trop. Then it happened to the Rays three times this season - Sept. 4-5 games against Detroit were postponed (and rescheduled as Thursday's doubleheader) and the Sept. 26 game against Toronto was canceled. The Rays also had five games postponed by rain, including one in New York twice. ... The Trop doubleheader was the first twinbill in a domed stadium since Oct. 5, 2001.
NUMBERS TO PONDER
.145 - Batting average of NL pitchers
.223 - Batting average of Rays DHs
10 - Errors by Jose Cruz from 2000-03
10 - Errors by Jose Cruz in 2004
11 - Home crowds of fewer than 10,000
16 - Days without a win (Aug. 26-Sept. 10)
16 - Days without a home game (Sept. 4-19)
20 - Wins in June, a franchise high
21 - Wins in July and August
51 - Home games of fewer than 15,000
NOTEWORTHY
* Lou Piniella became the sixth manager to have 1,400 hits and 1,400 wins in the big leagues, and moved into 20th place on the all-time wins list with 1,449.
* Carl Crawford became the eighth player in modern-day history to steal 100 bases before his 23rd birthday and is on track to become the fourth-youngest player to win back-to-back league stolen-base crowns.
* The Rays spent more days in first place this season (nine) than in their previous six seasons combined. They also moved over .500, into third place and within 10 games of first place later in a season than they every had.
* Over the first 61/2 weeks, the Rays were 10-28. Over the next 61/2 weeks, they were 28-10.
* A day after combining with the Blue Jays for a team record-high 39 hits, the Rays combined with the Marlins for a team record-low-tying five hits. They won both games.
* Tino Martinez hit his 322nd career home run, moving into 85th place on the all-time list. Jose Cruz hit his 166th, surpassing his father's career total. Geoff Blum became the first Ray to homer from both sides of the plate in the same game.
DREAMERS
During the season, we asked some of the Rays who their "dream date" would be. Let's review:
Rocco Baldelli - Mandy Moore
Dewon Brazelton - Cristina Aguilera
Jorge Cantu - Paris Hilton
Joey Gathright - Halle Berry
Chad Gaudin - Reese Witherspoon
Mark Hendrickson - Sophia Loren (in her 30s or 40s)
