Longoria likes Rays’ chances

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Evan Longoria woke up Sunday feeling much better about the Rays’ chances of rebounding against the Red Sox.

Not that it will be easy to overcome a 20 deficit in the bestoffive AL division series matchup that resumes Monday night at Tropicana Field. But to have any chance of succeeding, Longoria said the Rays can’t dwell on being on the brink of elimination again.

It took winning three consecutive elimination games just to get into the division series. Now, it will take three more to beat the Red Sox and reach the league championship series against Oakland or Detroit.

“I don’t think we let our guard down at all. I think we just got outplayed,” Longoria said after an optional team workout. “They swung the bats better, they pitched better. At some point you’ve got to be able to admit that and turn the page and go to the next day.”

Alex Cobb, who beat Cleveland last Wednesday in the AL wildcard game, will carry the Rays’ hopes to the mound in Game 3. Clay Buchholz will start for the Red Sox, who outscored Tampa Bay 196 in the opening two games at Fenway Park.

History doesn’t favor the Rays. Of the previous 22 AL teams that lost the first two games of a division series, only four rallied to advance.

Tampa Bay was able to force a Game 5 after dropping the first two in the 2010 division series, but the Rangers went on to play for the pennant.

Boston has won 14 of 21 games this year between the AL East rivals.

“That’s been a consistent approach that we’ve taken throughout the course of the year. We haven’t gotten ahead of ourselves,” Boston manager John Farrell said.

Longoria thinks that being back home after two weeks on the road will help. When the team plane landed in Tampa early Sunday, it concluded a fivecity, 12day, 5,631mile trek.

“I like our chances here. We played really well down the stretch,” Longoria said.