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ST. PETERSBURG — B.J. Upton is certainly putting together a memorable ending to an admittedly forgettable season.
Upton, the Rays' much-maligned centerfielder, came through in a big way Wednesday night, sparking a 5-4 come-from-behind victory over the Mariners with a go-ahead two-run single in the eighth.
Then, Upton made sure the lead stuck with a spectacular leaping catch in the ninth, ending the game by grabbing Bill Hall's fly atop the centerfield fence.
"He's an unbelievable player that makes plays like that all the time," Hall said. "I guess I need to hit it out of his reach."
Upton, who has three consecutive multi-hit games for the first time since August 2008, has five RBIs in his past two games after totaling three in his previous 22. Though he downplayed the significance of Wednesday's contributions to himself personally, saying it's all about the team, manager Joe Maddon said this stretch can do wonders for his confidence and be a sign of things to come for 2010.
"That's what he's showed us in the past, and the old scouting adage is if he's shown it to you in the past, he's going to show it to you again," Maddon said. "It's all about confidence. He's a young man (25) whose confidence is going to come back. And when his confidence comes back you're gonna see him doing those kinds of things on a more regular basis."
Though right-hander Wade Davis didn't pick up the win, he had another solid (albeit shorter) outing. Maddon said he went in with the plan to leave Davis in for only 90-100 pitches after the rookie threw a career-high 124 in a shutout his previous start. Davis said he didn't really have a good feel for the ball early on, but battled through in giving up just two earned runs over 52/3 innings and 96 pitches.
"I thought Wade pitched well," Maddon said. "He pitched very good."
Davis' night ended with two outs in the sixth, and Lance Cormier relieved him with a runner on first. Jack Hannahan greeted Cormier with a single to center. Upton tried throwing out Adrian Beltre, who was attempting to go from first to third, but the one-hop throw bounced off Beltre's helmet and into foul territory, allowing him to score.
Tampa Bay (78-74) got closer with a three-run rally in the sixth. And in the seventh, Ben Zobrist made a huge play, throwing out Michael Saunders at the plate on a potential sacrifice fly.
Though the Rays left the bases loaded in the second, Upton made sure they didn't do the same in the eighth. "Any win we get, no matter how it happens, the main objective is to win," he said.
Upton got the crowd of 13,009 on its feet after his game-ending catch, a fitting end to a memorable night.
"He's been relatively maligned all season," Maddon said. "So to have that happen tonight, I don't care what time of the year it is, it is something good for him to go home with in a couple weeks now and dwell on something like that as opposed to something negative."
Joe Smith can be reached at joesmith@sptimes.com
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