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THE GOOD: The Rays have now won 4 of their last 5 versus the Red Sox...Joe Maddon. With the Rays up 8-3 in the 5th with 2 on and David Ortiz due up, Papa Joe treated the situation like it was the 8th inning, calling on Grant Balfour. Balfour got Big Papi to fly out to end the threat...Before the series we predicted that Papa Joe would find a start for Willy Aybar in this series and that it would likely be in the final game. We also figured Aybar would bat right handed as many switch-hitters prefer against a knuckle-baller. Sure enough Aybar started and homered in the bottom of the first to give the Rays lead. Fernando Perez also batted right handed and homered. Speaking of which. Perez needs to slow down his home run trot. When the camera came back to Perez after watching the ball land in the stands, Perez was already rounding third...Joe Magrane. Magrane predicted a "big night" for Gross against Tim Wakefield only moments before Gross homered...Two wins in this series against the Twins and the Rays will clinch a playoff spot.

THE BAD: David Ortiz. First home run. Fine. Second home run? We have never seen a ball hit farther at the Trop. Hit Tracker Online is a website that uses mathematical models to project how far a ball would have travelled had the path not been impeded by things like Catwalks and human bodies. They project that Ortiz' second ball would have only travelled 428 feet. No way. That ball was 475 at least. They claim it wouldn't have travelled as far as the Gabe Gross shot back on August 6 that did hit the back wall and was measured at 463 feet...Grant Balfour worked in parts of 3 innings, and likely will not be available for the first two games of the Twins series...Wade Boggs threw out the first pitch. Tell us again why his number is retired?

THE TELLING: The Rays have now won the season series and will have the tie-breaker should the two teams tie for the division lead at the end of the season. Last night's win essentially knocked 3 off of the magic number to win the division which is now 9...The Rays are only 1 game behind the Angels in the loss column for the best record in the AL and home field advantage throughout the playoffs...According to Baseball Prospectus the odds of making the playoffs is now 99.99% percent, and 80.2% to win the AL East...Last night's game was the Rays' 6th sellout of the season...Tonight marks the return of Delmon Young to the Trop.

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA...

• BREAKING NEWS! The Cowbell Kid called a local radio station to announce his retirement...Wow. In the middle of a pennant race? Just before the playoffs? Do you know the kind of air time that guy would have gotten on Fox during the playoffs? Color us shocked. Of course we never sat behind the Cowbell Kid during a game. If that had happened maybe our feelings would be different. [97xonline]
  
• Troy Percival was unavailable last night after receiving a shot for his back. Percival will require off-season back surgery, but will be available Thursday for the opening game of the Twins series. [MLB]
• Justin Ruggiano got the start last night and Brittany Ghiroli reports that Joe Maddon was rewarding the rookie for his improved approach recently. [MLB]
• Cliff Floyd says he still hasn't decided whether or not to retire after the season, noting that at the beginning of the season he was sure 2008 would be his last season. He credits this roster with making baseball fun again and feels he does have "something left in the tank." [Tampa Tribune]
• Wait. What is going to fly? [Tampa Tribune]
  
• A fan got arrested last night trying to jump over the Rays dugout and possibly onto the field (he never made it to the field). We have mixed reports as to whether or not the fan was tasered. The police say no. And surprise, surprise, it was a Red Sox fan. [The Heater]
• Gary Shelton says that Joe Maddon is "either smarter than most, luckier than most or a guy who is having the combination platter." [St. Pete Times]
  
• It happens a lot. Somebody in the national media refers to the "Tampa Rays" or when referencing a home game or the Trop, they mistakenly say one or both are "in Tampa". But the crossword puzzle editor for the St. Pete Times, an official sponsor of the Rays? Yikes. [St. Pete Times]
  
• Jayson Stark notes that dramatic wins are becoming the norm for the Rays. [ESPN]
• The Rays released their '09 schedule. The season begins on April 6 in Boston and the home opener is April 13 against the Yankees...How sweet would it be to hand out World Series rings to all the players in front of the Yankees and their local bandwagon fans. [MLB]
• Even if the Rays want to play a series in Orlando in '09 (and there is little indication that they do) they may not be able to unless changes are made to the schedule. [Orlando Sentinel]
  
• Everybody thinks they have a sense of humor...Even Red Sox fans. [Boston Score]
• There is something amusing about the idea that Tony Massarotti of the Boston Globe feels he needs 400 words to explain how tie-breakers work to Red Sox fans. [Boston Globe]
  

There are a lot of things to be embarrassed about as a Rays fan (Rainbow Warriors unis, The Hit Parade, 9 last place finishes in 10 seasons, Dick Vitale). But the one that has always bothered us more than the others is the retirement of Wade Boggs' number 12. When people bring this little diddy up to us, we just shake our head in shame. He spent only two of his 18 seasons wearing purple, green, blue, yellow and chartreuse. Of Boggs' 3,010 career hits, only 210 came with the Devil Rays. He did that in three separate seasons with the Red Sox. In 1999, he had as many GIDPs as doubles (14) and never posted an OPS+ of 100 with the Rays).

Still, with the Rays playing in Toronto, we are reminded of one of the most amazing baseball stories we have ever heard. The following story is why we love Wade Boggs so much and why we refer to beers as "Boggs" (even if we still think it is idiotic that his number is retired).

[An excerpt from Drunk Jays Fans]

For your enjoyment, a conversation between Steve Sandmeyer and Jeff Nelson on 950 KJR:

Sandy: Who would you say drank the most beer out of everyone you ever played with?
Nelson: Easy, Wade Boggs…..easy
Sandy: (laughing) Really!? Wade Boggs?
Nelson: Oh, yeah, without a doubt. I’ve never seen anyone drink as much beer as he did in my life.
Sandy: (laughing) Get outta here, alright, give me an example, like how much did he drink?
Nelson: Oh, I’d say, on a typical road trip, east coast to west coast [Nelly played with Boggs on the Yankees], say a road game to Seattle……Wade would drink anywhere between 50 and 60 beers.
Sandy: NO WAY!! 50 or 60 beers. That is impossible.
Nelson: I’m not kidding you Steve. Seriously. Wade was the kind of guy who was always the first one at the club house. So he’d get to the clubhouse, and he’d bring a six pack with him. He’d be there drinking a beer when someone showed up, and as we were all packing our stuff up out of our lockers and getting our bags ready for the trip, Wade would sit there and drink that whole six pack....Now, at the time, we were flying out of New Jersey, so it was somewhat of a drive from Yankee stadium to the airport in New Jersey. Wade would drink another couple of beers on the bus to the airport. At the time, we were flying this older airplane, it couldn’t make it across the country without refueling, and it wasn’t the fastest airplane in the sky. So we would stop in North Dakota or something. Wade would drink about a half rack between New Jersey and North Dakota, and it would take about a half-hour to an hour to refuel once we got there, so he’d have a few more beers while we were grounded in North Dakota...Once we got back up in the air, Wade would drink another 10, 11, 12 beers on the way out to the west coast. The whole flight from coast to coast ususally took us well over 7 hours. We’d touch down at Sea-Tac, hop on the bus headed to the Kingdome, and Wade would have another beer or two on the bus. Then, all of us would get to the Kingdome and unpack our bags and sit around and BS with each other, and Wade would have a beer in his hand the entire time. He was always one of the last people to leave the club house too. So I’d say that all in all, he drank over 50 beers on the trip, and this wasn’t just an isolated incident, he did that almost every time.

[commercial break: When the commercial end, Paul Sorrento, a former Mariner and Devil Ray, and Boggs’s and Nelly’s former teammate, is on the phone]

Nelly: Alright Paul, we’ve been talking about Wade Boggs up here today in Seattle.
Sorrento: (laughing) Yeah, ole Wade huh.
Nelly: Yeah, alright Paul, I need you to answer one question for me, truthfully now….How many beers would Wade Boggs drink on an east coast to west coast road trip?
Sorrento: Oh, jeez, (exhaling like a flat tire) I don’t know, like 70.
Nelly, Sandberg, Sorrento, Hank: (Rolling on the ground laughing)

This story spawned the "The Boggs Head" on Drunk Jays Fans.

This story never ceases to amaze us. I drink more than my fair share of beer, to the point that most of my friends hate drinking with me because they say I have been cursed with a "high tolerance". And I'll be honest, one of my favorite things is "Drink-all-day Day", but I doubt I have ever even come close to 70 beers in one day. A truly amazing feet. And Boggs did this on a regular basis.

So this weekend, when we toss back a few "Boggs" we will toast the god of baseball drinking, Wade Boggs...and curse the Rays for retiring his number.

Have A Wade Boggs Weekend [Drunk Jays Fans]
The Boggs Head [Drunk Jays Fans]