Knockdown, Dragout AL East Race Has Only Just Begun

BOSTON -- We are barely into a 54-round, bare-knuckle cage match, in which at least one participant will be knocked out, and it looks like a doozy.

The Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox opened the season with a three-game series that was nearly suffocating in its relentless intensity and drama.

"It's mentally draining when you've got to stay as high intensity as we do against the clubs in our division," Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria said after the Rays took Thursday's rubber game. "It's always nerve-wracking here getting the last three [outs]."

Those two teams and the New York Yankees all have great talent and high expectations, yet only one or two will make the playoffs.

So it might just be that getting to the postseason out of the AL East is harder than making a run in October.

One drawback of the wild-card playoff system is it diminished the importance of a division title; the extra playoff berth provides a safety net. Not so in the powerhouse AL East.

"It'll be a long, interesting season," Boston manager Terry Francona said.

"It's going to be a good race down to the end," Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis said.

Three-Way Battle Royale
The 18 series between two of the "big three" in the AL East:
Dates	Matchup
April 7-9	TB at Bos
April 13-15	NYY at TB
April 24-26	NYY at Bos
April 30-May 3	Bos at TB
May 4-5	Bos at NYY
May 6-7	TB at NYY
May 8-10	TB at Bos
June 5-8	TB at NYY
June 9-11	NYY at Bos
July 27-29	NYY at TB
Aug. 4-5	Bos at TB
Aug. 6-9	Bos at NYY
Aug. 21-23	NYY at Bos
Sept. 1-3	Bos at TB
Sept. 7-9	TB at NYY
Sept. 11-13	TB at Bos
Sept. 25-27	Bos at NYY
Oct. 1-3	NYY at TB

Every contest between contenders seems a grind to the end, every inning a minefield, every pitch critical. There is no time to relax.

On Tuesday, Boston built a 5-1 lead over Tampa Bay, but the Rays scored two runs in the eighth inning and got the go-ahead run to the plate.

On Wednesday, the versatile Rays used a hit-and-run play, a squeeze bunt and a homer to build a four-run fourth, but the Red Sox scored a run in the eighth to get within four runs and then loaded the bases before Grant Balfour struck out Jed Lowrie.

Then in Thursday's finale, Tampa Bay built a 4-0 lead but had to escape hairy eighth and ninth innings in which Boston got the tying run on base.

"Every time we play these guys," Rays manager Joe Maddon said during the series, "it's the same way, and it really is kind of like last October. It's got that playoff feel to it all the time. ... It's pretty severe all the time -- the division in general, particularly with these guys here, particularly with the Yankees.

"There's a different form of current going along there. It's just different. And to deny it, you're just in denial. It's true. It's just the way it is."

The Red Sox, perhaps inured to this type of thing by years of hyped showdowns with the Yankees, prefer the denial route.

"If you get up for one series, it doesn't work," Francona said.

"I know that some games get covered more and there's a little more energy in the ballpark, but we need to stay on an even keel. That's really the way it works."

He has a point. Last year, the Yankees went 20-16 in the round-robin with the Rays and Red Sox but missed the playoffs. The other two teams were 17-19 in that set of games but did a better job of beating up on everyone else.

Of the 54 games between two of the three contenders in 2008, 17 were decided by one run, seven by two runs. Twenty-five of the victories required a save.

"Every game in this division is pretty intense," Rays left fielder Carl Crawford said. "You've got to make sure you're ready to play at all times."

The Yankees-Red Sox season series of the past five years have been high-tension miniseries, but the Rays' entry into the fray has tripled the number of magnified games.

Tampa Bay climbed into the cage match for good last April 25-27 with a three-game sweep of the Red Sox that convinced the Rays they were in the race for good: 5-4 in 11 innings; 2-1 by scoring two runs in the bottom of the ninth; and 3-0 as James Shields out-dueled Josh Beckett.

And when the teams met again in the ALCS, Tampa Bay was not intimidated and didn't give in after blowing a seven-run lead in Game 5.

"It really does get you battle-tested," Rays VP of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman said. "I thought we were much better off in the playoffs having come out of this division."

There are 51 more songs in what amounts to a brutal, cutthroat, 54-song edition of musical chairs -- the final three games are a Yankees series in Tampa, Oct. 2-4, to end the season -- and when the music stops, at least one team will be left without a spot in the playoffs.

"When you're in your division," Boston catcher Jason Varitek said, "you have a lot of familiarity and you have a lot of games played between groups."

And we know what familiarity breeds.