Projo Sox Blog

BOSTON _ Dan Johnson woke up yesterday morning as a minor league baseball player in a hotel in Moosic, Pa. By the time he went to bed again, he not only was back in the big leagues, he had become a major player in the American League East pennant race.

His is not exactly a Cinderella story, but it is an improbable one. And an exciting one, too.

Johnson, in his first at-bat ever for Tampa Bay, hit a ninth-inning home run off Jonathan Papelbon last night to help the Rays to a wild 5-4 victory over the Red Sox and keep Tampa Bay in first-place in the AL East.

Johnson's blast tied the score. The Rays then won it on doubles by Fernando Perez and Dioner Navarro for the deciding run off Papelbon.

Perez also is a recent call-up from Durham, Tampa Bay's Triple-A farm team. But he at least has been with the Rays since Sunday. Johnson is an even crazier story. He was in Pennsylvania with Durham for the International League finals against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He received a phone call at 9 a.m. It woke him up.

``The phone rings and they tell me, `Hey, you're going up.' `I think, OK.' They tell me, `You're flight is at noon. I show up at the airport and there's bad weather. They say every flight is cancelled except for the 7:55 a.m,'' he related That flight had been delayed until noon.

It got him to Philadelphia. But when he arrived he was told there were all kinds of weather problems and most flights were cancelled.

``They squeezed me on a flight,'' he said. ``I got here at 6:30, got in a cab and got here (to Fenway) about 6:50.

Joe Maddon, the Tampa Bay manager, had written the former Oakland infielder/outfielder into the second spot in the batting order, playing left field. But when Johnson was not at the park by 6:45, 20 minutes before game time, he put Ben Zobrist into his spot in the order and made several defensive changes.

Maddon decided to keep Zobrist in and Johnson on the bench even when Johnson arrived at 6:50. Johnson did not even know he had been expected to start.

``It's funny. I was thinking on my way over here, if he asks me to play, I've to play,'' he said.

Johnson had spent the entire season in the International League, where he hit .307 with 25 home runs. He was not even aware that Fenway had been a disaster for the Rays, that they had lost every seven straight times to the Sox.

``Someone mentioned it on the bench,'' he related. ``They were talking about getting the monkey off their back and winning one here.''

When Bay hit his two-run home run in the eighth to bring Boston from behind and into a 4-3 lead, it looked like more of the same. Papelbon came on to finish the eighth and Maddon told Johnson he would be pinch-hitting to lead off the ninth. Johnson went down the tunnel to loose up.

He got ahead 3-0.

``It's been a while since I've been up here. The first couple pitches I was a little antsy,'' he said. ``As the at-bat went on, I was able to track some pitches. It got to 3-0. I was able to really track the 3-0 pitch. I let loose on the 3-1, kind of got the timing.'' He fouled it off. But he did not miss the 3-2 pitch.

``It ended up being a fastball again and I got to it,'' he said.

He ripped it over the Boston bullpen, starting the winning rally.

``On behalf of the Tampa Bay Rays organization, we would like to thank U.S. Airways for getting Dan Johnson here in time tonight,'' Maddon said. ``Sometimes, things work out in your favor.''

 Tags  Dan Johnson Jonathan Papelbon Red Sox Tampa Bay Rays

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