A Boston radio personality started a new club early last week in anticipation of the Tampa Bay Rays visit to Fenway Park, which begins tomorrow. He named the newest Boston club the "Ray Haters." Within four hours of calls and e-mails, the "Ray Haters Club" had 32 members. "I don't know why I hate them, but I hate them," said WEEI's evening host Mike Adams, the Ray Haters Club president. Welcome to the big-time, Tampa Bay.
While Adams might be on the extreme end of Red Sox fandom, the point is it can be lonely (and angry) at the top.
The Rays fly into Logan Airport tonight after their series finale in Toronto this afternoon.
Despite losing four of their last five, include yesterday's back-breaking 7-4, 13-inning heartbreaker to the Blue Jays, the Rays are playing at a level nobody in their right mind would have predicted.
Not even those employed by the Rays.
"I'd be lying to you if I said predicted back in April that we'd be in first place through the first week of September, ahead of the Red Sox and Yankees," said Rays special assistant Don Zimmer.
"But here we are, with 25 games remaining, and we're in first place," said Zimmer. "People ask me all the time, 'Are you going to hold on and win it?' The hell if I know! Anything could happen. I just know we have had an amazing season."
It was just before Independence Day, on July 2, when we last checked in with Zimmer, who is in 59th year of professional baseball.
The Rays had just swept three games against the Red Sox in Tampa. He was awestruck.
"I told my son, 'Can you imagine that this Rays team, 20 games over .500 and in first place by 3<1/2> games, just past the halfway mark, and we won't have anybody voted to the all-star on team," said Zimmer at the time. "I've had so much fun coming to the park I can't even explain it."
The Rays weren't supposed to be here. They hit the All-Star break losing seven straight games and dropped out of first place.
The Red Sox then had Manny-Gate and immediately started losing and, well, the Rays went right back to their winning ways.
Since the All-Star break the Rays have won 12 series, tied one and lost only one, which was a half-week ago in New York.
Included in those series wins were World Series contenders like the Los Angeles Angels and the Chicago White Sox.
Not only that, but on Aug. 7, the Rays' best player, rookie third baseman Evan Longoria, broke his wrist. Two nights later, the Rays' best defensive player and probably the best player in franchise history, left fielder Carl Crawford, tore a tendon in his right hand.
After Crawford's injury, the Rays went on to win 14 of 19 games before losing two straight to the Yankees last Tuesday and Wednesday.
Zimmer is still in awe. And he still is having trouble with a full explanation.
"When those two guys went out and we kept winning, well, that really meant something to me," said Zimmer. "It's amazing. I would never have predicted it. But here we are, and we are still in first place."
The Rays' success has always centered around their pitching. Over the last month, when they allow four or fewer runs, the Rays are 13-2.
And while they are 13-1 over the last month when they score five or more runs, pitching and defense continue to be the staples of this team.
Their starting rotation - Scott Kazmir (10-6), Matt Garza (11-8), Andy Sonnanstine (13-7), Edwin Jackson (11-9) and James Shields (12-8) - might be the best in all of baseball. Yet they are an average of just 25 years and four months.
In addition, closer Troy Percival, Trever Miller, Dan Wheeler, J.P. Howell and Grant Balfour form perhaps the best bullpen in the game.
The offense, however, is opportunistic at best, especially with Crawford and Longoria out, although Longoria was activated yesterday.
The only regular hitting above .279 is catcher Dioner Navarro at .297.
But lately, at least, Haverhill's Carlos Pena, has played the role of run producer. He has hit .301 over the last month while clubbing nine homers and 29 RBIs in August.
"I'm seeing the ball well and focusing on that. It sounds kind of cliche, but it's true," Pena told Tampa writers recently. "You know when you can keep it that simple you really allow yourself to play. You can kind of get out of your own way."
Former Red Sox bench player Eric Hinske has added some punch with 19 homers while playing right field and left field.
But, and there is a big but here, the Rays probably have never played three games in an atmosphere they will see and feel beginning tomorrow at Fenway Park.
With only three weeks remaining in regular season and playoff berths still up in the air, Fenway Park will be rocking a little more than normal beginning tomorrow. The atmosphere at Tropicana Field (average attendance 21,441, 51.1 percent capacity) certainly will never be compared to the frenzy of Fenway Park (37,646, 104.1 percent capacity).
The last time these teams played, the Rays swept the Red Sox.
But these Sox are not only hotter, winning 9 of their last 11 games heading into yesterday, but the Rays will face the Red Sox Big Three in Jon Lester (13-5), Daisuke Matsuzaka (16-2) and Josh Beckett (12-9).
"Look, you don't have to tell me how good the Red Sox are," said Zimmer. "If you asked 100 people, 99 people would say the Red Sox and one guy would say the Rays."
When asked who that "one guy" is Zimmer laughed.
"I don't know," he said. "But what I do know is that this is going to be a lot of fun. I can't tell you how it's going to turn out, but people have been waiting for us to fall all season and we're still around."
E-mail Bill Burt at bburt@eagletribune.com.
