From Worst to Best? The Rays May Know the Way

Manager Joe Maddon has his Rays one step closer to the World Series, where they would enjoy home-field advantage. (By M. Spencer Green/pool -- Getty Images)

The problem with all this is the extremely uncooperative Red Sox. To many, including me, Boston's walk-off, 3-2 win on Monday night to eliminate the Angels felt a bit like a surreptitious coronation. Was that win -- aided by Mike Scioscia's disastrous decision to blow up a ninth-inning rally with a failed suicide bunt -- really the rough equivalent of the last game of the '08 World Series?

After all, when the defending champs beat the rival with the best regular season mark, then merely have to best a scruffy underdog like the Rays, then thump the demonstrably Inferior League in the Series, isn't it time to cue the Duck Boats for that parade to Boston Common?

Yes, usually it works out something like that. But this time, there are twists. The Rays just got back their best-known player, swift and powerful outfielder Carl Crawford, a career .296 hitter who's stolen 50 bases four times but missed 53 games this year. Meanwhile, Boston will be without sore-hipped Mike Lowell, the '07 World Series MVP.

So no Manny Ramírez, no Lowell, Josh Beckett with a nagging side muscle and Daisuke Matsuzaka (18-3) driving everybody crazy using 100 pitches to work five innings.

That evens things up a bit, but only somewhat. Both teams have deep, talented bullpens, but Boston has Jonathan Papelbon (41 saves) at the back end while the Rays mix and match while calling humble Dan Wheeler their closer. The Rays have a rookie, Evan Longoria, batting cleanup. The Red Sox have David Ortiz.

The problem with a grand plan is that, if it goes wrong, then things can unwind in a hurry. What if the Rays don't win the first two games in Tampa Bay? What if Jon Lester just shuts them down at the Trop, including their running game, as he did against the running Angels? Will the Rays panic?

The Rays beat the Red Sox over 162 games, though few believed it even as they watched it. Now, with the stakes raised, don't dismiss Tampa Bay out of hand. All season, the Rays had to make do with almost every starting player injured at one time or another. Since Opening Day, they've never been as healthy as they are now.

Get ready for the fun. It's too bad the Cubs couldn't come. Those screams? Milton might say it's the Cubs being "hurled headlong flaming from the eternal sky with hideous ruin and combustion down to bottomless perdition." The wrath on the North Side runs deep.

But why waste so much sympathy for the Cubs? What about the Phillies? They've won only one World Series -- 1980 -- in their entire history, which began in 1883. That's 1 for 125 years.

At least we know where we stand. The Red Sox, despite their miseries over the generations, and Dodgers, though they haven't won a Series in 20 years, are still among the game's blue bloods.

The Phils, the only team that ever commemorated its 10,000th defeat, and the Rays, who, until this season, never had a single victory worth celebrating, would make an ideal World Series marriage.

Unlikely, granted. But perfect, and to be wished, nonetheless.