THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOSTON - The Tampa Bay Rays are giving Scott Kazmir the chance to pitch them into the World Series.
The 24-year-old left-hander was moved up in the rotation so he could pitch in the potential AL pennant clincher against the Boston Red Sox on Thursday night at Fenway Park. The move keeps Kazmir on his regular rest and bumps scheduled starter James Shields to the if-necessary Game 6 at home Saturday.
"We're not looking to give them any kind of crack" in the door, Rays manager Joe Maddon said Wednesday, a day after his team beat Boston 13-4 to take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. "We believe that Kaz can pitch well tomorrow. … We're just trying to look at the big picture with the whole thing."
Maddon said this was part of the plan all along, helped in part because of the travel day Thursday that would allow the bullpen to recuperate if Kazmir can't go deep into the game. Kazmir's numbers at Fenway Park are also better: He is 4-4 with a 3.02 ERA at Fenway, vs. a 2-3 record and 4.29 ERA against the Red Sox at home.
Shields, on the other hand, is 0-3 in three starts with a 10.13 ERA at Fenway.
"This has not been his most effective place to pitch, and he's been very effective at home," Maddon said. "Kaz has been good here. And again, you look at what Kaz has done recently, and I understand everybody's trepidation, but I feel strongly about it, we all do. We feel it's the right thing to do right now."
Kazmir will match up against Daisuke Matsuzaka, who went 18-3 in the regular season and beat the Rays in Game 1 of the AL championship series. The defending World Series champions have lost three in a row since then to fall to the brink of elimination, but it's a position that has served them well: They're 7-1 in elimination games since 2004, including a Game 7 victory in last year's ALCS over Cleveland - a game won by Matsuzaka.
"Believe me when I tell you, how he pitches this - the intensity, the meaning, as much as this game means, that will help him," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "That won't hinder him."
The Red Sox have twice come back from a 3-1 deficit in the ALCS - in 2004 they trailed the Yankees 3-0 - to reach the World Series.
"If we can draw on anything from that, good," Francona said. "Anything that's happened in your past - you try to turn it into an advantage for you. Saying that, this is a different team, it's a different Tampa team. But, again, we'll use anything we can to give us any kind of advantage."
