For one night, Rays' wild ride shut down

Smiles, jokes and handshakes, emitted and offered by men in gray jerseys and business casual clothes, dominated the late afternoon at Yankee Stadium. These were your nothing-to-lose Tampa Bay Rays getting ready for action.

But the perennial upstarts from Florida faced a different powerhouse than the one they roughed up in Boston last weekend. They saw a Yankees team that played like it had nothing to fear.

As the Yankees blanked Tampa Bay, 5-0, the Rays' miracle playoff run grew more difficult. Whereas the Yankees moved toward both an official postseason berth and an official Game 2 starting pitcher.

"It's always about the starting pitcher," Rays manager Joe Maddon said after the game. "The starting pitcher for both teams always controls momentum. And our guy got off poorly, and their guy got off good. Our guys were ready to play."

Yeah, that pretty much nails it. The Rays didn't look like a team that had lost its way following its marvelous, 3-1 series victory over the disheveled Red Sox at Fenway Park. To the contrary, Maddon credited losing pitcher Wade Davis (eight hits and five walks in 42/3 innings) and three relievers for keeping the game as close as they did, stranding a remarkable 18 Yankees baserunners.

Nevertheless, the Rays desperately need to win games, and they could be thankful only that the Red Sox blew a lead to lowly Baltimore and lost, 7-5, up at Fenway.

"It's a lost opportunity," Maddon said, "but then again, it's not so bad."

As for the Yankees, their starter Ivan Nova withstood some good, early at-bats by the Rays, hits that fell in the right places, and wound up throwing 72/3 innings to raise his record to 16-4 and lower his ERA to 3.62. The Yankees can clinch a playoff spot by Wednesday night and could even clinch the American League East title by winning both games of their day-night doubleheader, combined with another Red Sox loss Wednesday night.

Prior to Tuesday night's game, I asked Rays designated hitter (and former Yankee and Red Sox, of course) Johnny Damon if he viewed the club's underdog status as an asset.

"Well, we sure hope so," Damon said. "But we also know that New York wants to try to clinch this thing as quick as they can so they can start setting up their postseason rosters and rotation. Like I said up in Boston, the Red Sox are finally going to root for the Yankees after all these years. It's pretty funny, if you think about it."

Joe Girardi, too, chuckled at the idea before affirming, "I'm cheering for our club."

The Tampa Bay management group, virtually all of whom attended the game Tuesday night -- principal owner Stuart Sternberg makes his primary home in Westchester -- can take pride in another successful year on the field, no matter what transpires in these final eight days. The Rays lost more than one-third of their 2010 division-winning team last winter, they dropped their payroll by about $30 million (from $71 million to $41 million) and they nevertheless scared the daylights out of a Red Sox team with a $161-million payroll.

"I think it does motivate our guys," said Andrew Friedman, Tampa Bay's executive vice president of baseball operations. "It does kind of create that 'us against them' mentality that I think serves us well. You can see it with how loose we're playing."

Some nights, however, it just isn't meant to be. Especially against a quality foe like the Yankees.

When a nothing-to-lose team loses? It doesn't feel so much like nothing.