Scott Kazmir

The Boston Red Sox rallied past host Tampa Bay and clinched their second straight trip to the playoffs. Manny Ramirez hit his AL-leading 43rd home run and Johnny Damon hit his career-high 19th homer as the Red Sox beat the Devil Rays, 7-3. The win assured Boston of no worse than the AL wild-card berth as the Red Sox closed within three games of the AL East-leading New York Yankees with six games remaining. Boston players shook hands and exchanged hugs and high-fives after the final out. "No one's going bananas, we still have a job to do," Damon said.

Curt Schilling moved into a tie for the American League lead with his fifth win and David Ortiz put Boston ahead with a three-run double, leading the Red Sox over the visiting Baltimore Orioles, 6-3, last night. Schilling (5-1) rebounded from his only loss of the season, allowing three runs and eight hits in seven innings. He struck out five and didn't walk a batter. In other games: At Toronto, Russ Adams homered and had four RBI to lead the Blue Jays over the Angels, 13-3.

If the Tampa Bay Rays ever needed a vintage performance from lefthander Scott Kazmir, it was last night while on the brink of elimination. Not known for going deep into games, Kazmir lived up to that reputation in Game 5, which was suspended after 5 1/2 innings with the score tied at 2-2. The game will resume, weather permitting, at 8 o'clock tonight with the Phillies coming to bat in the bottom of the sixth inning. The performance continued a postseason pattern of first-inning blahs for Kazmir.

One win away from a berth in the World Series, Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon isn't playing it safe. Maddon said during a news conference yesterday that he is switching his rotation for tonight's Game 5 against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. With a three-games-to-one lead in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series, Maddon has decided to start lefthander Scott Kazmir in place of righthander James Shields. If the series goes beyond tonight, Shields - the Game 1 starter - will pitch Game 6 Saturday at Tropicana Field.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Scott Kazmir and Cole Hamels, the lefthanded starters for tonight's first game of the World Series, have never faced each other in the major leagues and, according to Kazmir, have done little more than "said 'hi' and 'bye' a couple times. " But they know each other. They have been compared and matched up side-by-side since they were teenagers. After all this time, in this most amazing of settings, someone gets to take a very big lead in the comparison standings.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Tampa Bay Rays' chance of getting off to a quick start against the Phillies was foiled in the first inning last night. That's because lefthander Scott Kazmir continued his postseason struggles at the start of games. Kazmir was the losing pitcher as the Phillies took Game 1 of the World Series, 3-2. The Phils jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Chase Utley hit a 92-m.p.h. fastball on a 2-2 count for a two-run home run. "I made one bad mistake, a fastball to Utley," Kazmir said.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Chuck LaMar sat behind home plate at Tropicana Field, greeted by one well-wisher after another last night before Game 6 of the American League Championship Series between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Boston Red Sox. Rarely has a Phillies executive received such royal treatment outside Philadelphia. LaMar, the Phillies' director of professional scouting since November, has deep ties to the Rays and the local community. He was the Rays' first general manager, hired July 19, 1995, nearly three years before the franchise's first game.

No respect Despite the flurry of nationwide publicity generated by Tampa Bay's dramatic dash to the top of the American League East standings, the Rays still don't seem to command respect among all-star voters. The Rays, who have the best record in the majors at 55-32, lead the AL East, formerly the exclusive playground of the Yankees and Red Sox, by 5 games. But when the AL all-stars were announced yesterday, no one from baseball's top team was voted to the starting lineup.

Boston outfielder Coco Crisp, Tampa Bay pitcher James Shields and six other players were suspended yesterday following a pair of altercations at Fenway Park. Three Red Sox were suspended: Crisp for seven games, pitcher Jon Lester for five games and first baseman Sean Casey for three games. Baseball disciplinarian Bob Watson penalized five Rays: Shields for six games, outfielder Jonny Gomes and pitcher Edwin Jackson for five games, outfielder Carl Crawford for four games and second baseman Akinori Iwamura for three games.

Music blared in the Tampa Bay clubhouse and four large, flat-screen televisions mounted around a column in the middle of the room were tuned to the same in-house channel displaying the AL East standings. The surprising Rays are on top, and the sputtering Yankees are on the bottom. No one was gloating, though. "I want us to celebrate hard for 30 minutes postgame and then move on. I want us to dwell on a loss for no more than 30 minutes," manager Joe Maddon said after yesterday's 5-2 victory dumped visiting New York into the cellar.

Jeter nearing milestone Entering last night's play, Derek Jeter needed eight hits to pass Lou Gehrig as the Yankees' all-time hit leader. It would be another stunning milestone for the 35-year-old Jeter, who will ostensibly go down as one of the greatest players for the greatest baseball franchise. Gehrig, ridden with ALS, never had the chance at 3,000 hits, a mark he would have almost certainly reached had he remained healthy. He retired at 35 with 2,720 hits. Jeter has 2,713 hits.

The Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays shared an experience in October, as two unlikely teams fighting through a rainy World Series. This week, they meet for the first time since the postseason, spring training aside. Both are dealing with the repercussions of success, though the Phils have enjoyed a smoother encore so far. The teams have a number of similar problems, as their bullpens and starting rotations suffered the injuries and drop-offs in performance common after a long playoff run. But both the Phils and Rays benefit from the leadership of managers who have demonstrated an ability to steer their teams through adverse circumstances.

If the Tampa Bay Rays ever needed a vintage performance from lefthander Scott Kazmir, it was last night while on the brink of elimination. Not known for going deep into games, Kazmir lived up to that reputation in Game 5, which was suspended after 5 1/2 innings with the score tied at 2-2. The game will resume, weather permitting, at 8 o'clock tonight with the Phillies coming to bat in the bottom of the sixth inning. The performance continued a postseason pattern of first-inning blahs for Kazmir.

A wet World Series night began and ended with B.J. Upton running the bases. In the first inning, he hit a ground ball to Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins and barely ran it out. Five innings later, Upton turned up the speed and helped the Tampa Bay Rays tie Game 5 of the World Series at 2-2. Moments later, Major League Baseball delayed the game because of rain. The game was eventually suspended and will resume with the Phillies batting in the bottom of the sixth inning. The resumption is scheduled for tonight at 8, weather permitting.

Cole Hamels is having a postseason to remember. The stylish Phillies lefthander is 4-0 with a 1.55 earned run average to this point of the playoffs going into what is likely to be his final appearance of the season. Hamels has been so good, in fact, that Phillies fans could be excused for believing there's no way he can lose. Tampa Bay Rays lefthander Scott Kazmir will be out to help his team demonstrate the flaw in that logic tonight in Game 5 of the World Series at Citizens Bank Park.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - There wasn't much difference between the way James Shields pitched in Game 2 of the World Series and the way Scott Kazmir pitched in Game 1. Both threw a lot of pitches, both danced the line a little dangerously. But Shields never made the big mistake, like Kazmir did by surrendering that two-run homer to Phillies second baseman Chase Utley. And the Rays' batters broke through against Phillies starter Brett Myers, something they couldn't do against Game 1 starter Cole Hamels.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Tampa Bay Rays' chance of getting off to a quick start against the Phillies was foiled in the first inning last night. That's because lefthander Scott Kazmir continued his postseason struggles at the start of games. Kazmir was the losing pitcher as the Phillies took Game 1 of the World Series, 3-2. The Phils jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Chase Utley hit a 92-m.p.h. fastball on a 2-2 count for a two-run home run. "I made one bad mistake, a fastball to Utley," Kazmir said.

Phillies fans may or may not remember 1996 for the team's pitiful 67-95 record. Or, maybe they choose to remember that year because the All-Star Game came to Veterans Stadium. Few probably realized that their lives as fans were about to change radically. That year, two Stanford doctoral students worked on a research project that turned into the Internet search engine Google. It wasn't just Google that altered the sports landscape. In the last dozen years, technology has exploded onto the sports scene, bringing real-time statistics, message boards, chat rooms and blogs, and fantasy leagues for every occasion.

Phillies hitting coach Milt Thompson knows the Tampa Bay Rays. He knows their pitchers. He knows their tendencies. He knows which starter likes to throw a breaking ball when he is behind 2-0 in the count and which reliever likes to throw a fastball ahead 0-2. More than that, Thompson knows their story. He knows that the Rays went from last place in 2007 to the World Series in 2008. He knows it because he lived it. "Same thing happened here," Thompson said, referring to the 1993 Phillies.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Scott Kazmir and Cole Hamels, the lefthanded starters for tonight's first game of the World Series, have never faced each other in the major leagues and, according to Kazmir, have done little more than "said 'hi' and 'bye' a couple times. " But they know each other. They have been compared and matched up side-by-side since they were teenagers. After all this time, in this most amazing of settings, someone gets to take a very big lead in the comparison standings.