by JOE SMITH, TIMES STAFF WRITER , St. Petersburg Times

There was his outfield assist in the seventh, when Zobrist kept it a one-run game by throwing a one-hopper to get Michael Saunders at the plate on a potential sacrifice fly.

"Huge," manager Joe Maddon said. "That's the beauty of Ben. Any place you put him, he plays solid defense. You don't feel like you're losing anything."

Then in the winning rally in the eighth, Zobrist helped set the table by working a walk after falling behind 0-and-2 to reliever Mark Lowe. That put two runners on with no outs.

"That," Maddon said, "was probably the turning point."

"He threw some good pitches there right at the beginning of the at-bat, put me down 0-2 real quick," Zobrist said. "I was just trying to protect, doing everything I can to keep the at-bat alive."

Maddon said the Rays battled in their at-bats all night. Evan Longoria's leadoff single in the eighth was with two strikes and so was B.J. Upton's go-ahead single.

Zobrist said it's just a product of the team wanting to finish the season strong (and above .500), even though it is eliminated from the postseason.

"Nobody wants to act like these games don't mater," he said. "This is not the way that this team plays. We play to win and it doesn't matter what the score is or what the game is, I just think you've got to keep fighting. And it shows your character if you're willing to really fight at the end of season where you're already out of it."

WADING IN: Though Maddon said the plan all along was to hold RHP Wade Davis to just 90-100 pitches, he didn't tell the rookie about it until after the game because he didn't want him to have that in his head.

Davis was coming off a shutout in his last start (and a career-high 124 pitches), which is why Maddon wanted to watch his pitch count. Davis said he felt fine physically but wasn't as sharp as he could be.

"I didn't have a really good feel for the ball early in the game," he said. "In the fifth and sixth inning, I started getting a little better. Unfortunately, I gave up a couple singles on pitches I didn't execute, but overall it was okay."

PEN POWER: During the homestand, the Rays bullpen compiled a 0.72 ERA (122/3 innings, one earned run), allowing only seven hits and striking out 11 in a combined 20 appearances. The only run came on Jose Lopez's solo homer off Dan Wheeler on Tuesday night. ... RHP Russ Springer recorded the first victory for a Rays reliever since J.P. Howell on Sept.2 vs. Boston. ... LHP Randy Choate is 5-for-5 in save opportunities. But Choate pointed out that Upton made great catches in center to "save me" in two of those, including Wednesday.

STANDING TALL: Consider the Mariners' Don Wakamatsu another opposing manager who has been impressed with Rays rookie RHP Jeff Niemann this season. "He's awfully good," Wakamatsu said. "His last outing in Seattle was as good as I've seen him. (Tuesday) he battled, didn't think his fastball command was as good, but he's awfully impressive for a first-year guy. He's done a good job."

MISCELLANY: Maddon said he'd like to get C Shawn Riggans into a game down the stretch. ... Willy Aybar continued his strong stretch at the plate with a double Wednesday, having entered the game hitting .333 (5-for-15) on the homestand with a homer and three RBIs.

Copyright 2009 Times Publishing Company All Rights Reserved
	Terms & Conditions     Privacy Copyright © 2009 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.