Rays beat White Sox in playoff opener

By Robert Green

ST PETERSBURG, Florida (Reuters) - Evan Longoria hit two home runs as the Tampa Bay Rays celebrated their first American League Division Series playoff game with a 6-4 win over the Chicago White Sox Thursday.

Longoria, the Rays rookie All-Star third baseman, hit bases empty home runs in the second and third innings of Chicago pitcher Javier Vazquez as the Rays took a 4-3 lead. He also had a run-scoring single in the fifth inning.

"I was nervous. I was anxious to get up there," Longoria told reporters after the game.

Manager Joe Maddon said he was not surprised that Longoria did so well. "He's always in the moment. He's not going to be overwhelmed by the situation."

James Shields was the winning pitcher for the Rays, allowing only a three-run homer by Dewayne Wise in six and one-third inning.

Shields left with the bases loaded in the seventh inning but Australian relief pitcher Grant Balfour struck out the next two men to end the threat.

Paul Konerko hit a bases-empty home run for Chicago in the ninth inning but Dan Wheeler got the next three outs to end the game.

The win gives the Rays 1-0 lead in the best-of-five American League Division Series.

Game Two will be played at Tropicana Field in St Petersburg Friday with Scott Kazmir (12-8) starting for the Rays and Mark Buehrle (15-12) for the White Sox.

"We have to win tomorrow," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "But, you know, this ballclub was against the wall a lot of times and we pulled it out."

The White Sox only clinched a playoff spot Tuesday after a 1-0 win over Minnesota in a playoff for the American League Central Division championship.

The Rays, the worst team in major league baseball last year with a 66-96 record, improved by 31 wins this year to win the AL East Division title.

Until this year, the Rays had never won more than 70 games in their previous 10 seasons.

A sellout crowd of 35,041 cheered and rang cowbells on almost every pitch in support of the Rays.

(Editing by John O'Brien)