Rays/MLB

Now, it's about confidence

By EDUARDO A. ENCINA
Published September 12, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - The Devil Rays have just 12 road games remaining this season heading into tonight's series opener in New York, which leaves them little time to reverse their troubles away from Tropicana Field since the All-Star break.

Still, manager Joe Maddon sees the three-game series at Yankee Stadium as a unique opportunity to stop his team's snowballing struggles.

The Devil Rays own the ninth-largest differential between home and road records since 1987. Tampa Bay is 38-36 at Tropicana Field but has lost 20 of 22 road games since the All-Star break and is 19-50 on the road on the season.

Though the Devil Rays are 29½ games behind the AL East-leading Yankees, winning in the Bronx can add some much-needed confidence to Maddon's young team heading into 2007, the manager said.

"I think it would help for our guys to get it done so we know we can do it," Maddon said. "It's going to happen. I'd like for it to happen before the end of the season so we can go into the offseason knowing what that feels like. I'm not concerned about whether it's going to happen. It's a matter of when. ... We do so well (at home). When we go out there, we go from the turf inside to the grass outside and we become a different group."

Of the four remaining teams the Rays play on the road, the Yankees are the only division leader. The Rays play two games in Boston, which is on the fringe of the wild-card race, at the end of the month.

Maddon said he will continue the postgame gatherings on this trip, having informal get-togethers in the team hotel after the first games in New York and Toronto. Maddon experimented with gatherings on the most recent trip to Baltimore and Chicago.

"I like our little gatherings at night," Maddon said. "They understand why that's in place. Overall, I thought we reacted pretty good on our last trip."

MAKING HISTORY: Shortstop Ben Zobrist admits to being a baseball history buff. He boasts of owning Ken Burns' documentary on the history of the game. So when Zobrist plays his first game at Yankee Stadium tonight, it will be special for the 25-year-old rookie. It will be the first time Zobrist, who went from Double A to Rays starting shortstop in 20 days, has ever been to Yankee Stadium.

"They do a whole section on the Yankees and the whole history," Zobrist said of Burns' documentary. "So more than anything it's going to be probably a little surreal in my mind that I'm going to be there standing where a lot of those players in history have stood."

ELITE COMPANY: With three hits Sunday, Rays rightfielder Delmon Young became with 11th big-league player since 1957 to have at least 20 hits in his first 12 games. Young, who is batting .408 (20-for-49) with two homers and eight RBIs, joined Rocco Baldelli (2003) as the only Rays player on the list. Also on the list: Kirby Puckett, Terry Pendleton, Craig Wilson, Bo Hart, Mike Lansing, Curtis Goodwin, Al Gallagher, Coco Laboy and Ken Reitz.

MINOR MATTERS: Class A Visalia evened its best-of-five California League division series at one game Sunday night with a 4-2 win over San Jose. Four Visalia pitchers combined on a two-hitter. The teams played Game 3 Monday night in Visalia. ... Former Triple-A Durham pitching coach Joe Coleman, whose contract was not renewed after seven seasons with the Bulls, said this weekend he needed a few days to decide whether he wanted to return to coaching. Coleman, who has been in baseball for 41 years, said that coaching at the Triple-A level wasn't important, and he might prefer a move to the Florida State League to stay close to his Cape Coral home.

MISCELLANY: The Rays blew their 80th lead of the season in the second inning Sunday, tied for most in the majors. ... The Rays have owned leads in 107 of their 143 games. ... Jorge Cantu's past eight homers have all been at home. ... The Rays collected 27,000 books to distribute to area Boys & Girls Clubs. The team ran a promotion from June through the weekend, offering two tickets to Saturday's game against Oakland for book donations.

[Last modified September 12, 2006, 01:06:00]