<table> </table> <strong><span class="subhead">Second-half surge carried Rays</span></strong></p><p>Everybody has a different answer for when the Rays <em>really </em>started believing. The company line is spring training, others point to the brawl with the Red Sox.</p><p>But Rays manager Joe Maddon has his own thoughts. He remembers losing the last seven games before the All-Star break, one of many times observers thought the end of the Rays&#8217; ride was near, a thought that Maddon admits &#8220;was a very easy thing to imagine.&#8221;</p><p>That stopped quickly after the break, when the Rays won 12 of 13 series &#8212; a split in Kansas City was the only exception.</p><p>&#8220;After all this bad stuff going on,&#8221; Maddon says, &#8220;then all of a sudden we start to win all these close games again. I think that&#8217;s probably the overall tipping point.&#8221;</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">On the catwalk &#8230;</span></strong></p><p>Good luck understanding the 294-word explanation of the Tropicana Field ground rules located on the Rays&#8217; official Web site.</p><p>Basically, there are four catwalks that ring the inside of the dome. If a ball hits either of the lower two catwalks in fair territory, it&#8217;s a home run. If it hits either of the higher two catwalks in fair territory, it&#8217;s a live ball. If it stays up on any catwalk &#8212; it happened twice this year &#8212; it&#8217;s a ground-rule double.</p><p>Anything that hits a catwalk in foul territory is a dead ball that can&#8217;t be caught for an out.</p><p>Also, if it goes over the tree and across the Jones&#8217; driveway, it&#8217;s a grand slam and the pitcher has to run around the block with his pants down.</p><p>One of the above sentences is made up.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Mr. Howell is priceless</span></strong></p><p>Royals fans will remember one key member of the Rays&#8217; bullpen &#8212; J.P. Howell.</p><p>Working out of the bullpen for the first time in his career, Howell emerged as one of the game&#8217;s most effective setup men. He was 6-1 with a 2.22 ERA, with 92 strikeouts and only 62 hits allowed in 89 1/3 innings.</p><p>The Royals took Howell 31st overall in the 2004 draft and promoted him to the big leagues a year later, when he went 3-5 with a 6.19 ERA. He was in Class AAA Omaha when he was dealt for Joey Gathright in GM Dayton Moore&#8217;s first trade.</p><p>&#8220;Oh, man, I remember it was a good organization,&#8221; Howell said of the Royals. &#8220;The tough part was there was no winning. It was tough to get the ball rolling. My only memory was a lot of losing, so it was negative. But as far as the people go, hey, they were great.&#8221;</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Dice-K&#8217;s Achilles&#8217; heel</span></strong></p><p>Boston&#8217;s Daisuke Matsuzaka mostly fulfilled the Dice-K hype this year, going 18-3 with a 2.90 ERA and some Cy Young consideration. But he&#8217;s also been erratic.</p><p>Eight times he&#8217;s walked five or more batters, and eight times he&#8217;s gone fewer than six innings with more than 100 pitches. His hits allowed per nine innings (6.87) were best in baseball, while his walks (94) were worst.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s true for any pitcher, but getting that first-pitch strike puts you at a big advantage for that at-bat,&#8221; he said through an interpreter. &#8220;But I wouldn&#8217;t say that being able to get that first-pitch strike boosts my confidence in any way.&#8221;</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Another arm</span></strong></p><p>Maddon chose to carry 11 pitchers for the ALCS, as opposed to just 10 for the first-round series. He chose Edwin Jackson as the extra arm over Troy Percival, who threw a simulated inning or so on Thursday.