Tony DeMarco

Here we go again. Another October, and if we've learned anything about 21st-century postseason baseball, it's to expect the unexpected and think historic.

Since the New York Yankees' dynasty ended with their 2000 title, we've witnessed:

An Arizona Diamondbacks upset of the Yankees.

The Anaheim Angels winning a World Series battle of wild cards.

A wild card Florida Marlins upset of the Yankees.

The Boston Red Sox ending their historic drought by rallying from a 3-games-to-0 deficit in the American League Championship Series.

The Chicago White Sox ending a little drought of their own.

The St. Louis Cardinals going all the way after an 83-win regular season.

The Colorado Rockies winning 21 of 22 before finally being swept by the favored Red Sox.

Predicting any of those occurrences before the start of the division-series round would have been to go down a road hardly traveled. So who’s to say something like that won’t happen again?

You want unexpected? We give you the Tampa Bay Rays, whom the word ‘unexpected’ doesn’t do justice. You know the story by now — 10 years of futility, never more than 70 regular-season victories, transforming faster than even their always-positive manager anticipated and finishing ahead of the Red Sox and Yankees.

And whoever the Rays meet in the division series — Minnesota Twins or Chicago White Sox — they were almost as big a long shot six months ago to win the AL Central as the Rays were to win the AL East.

You want potentially historic? How about the Milwaukee Brewers? They took the unprecedented step of firing their manager with two weeks left in the season when they saw their lead in the wild card race slip away, and won it back on the final day. Now they will continue to ride the enormous pitching feats of CC Sabathia that we thought were left to eras past.

But Sabathia has legitimate competition for the most-valuable mid-season pickup. That’s because Manny Ramirez magically has transformed himself from malingering malcontent to the star of Mannywood. And to think, he’s doing it all for Joe Torre, in effect forced out of the Evil Empire, but proving he’s still one of the game’s elite managers.

And of course, there are 100 years of history behind the Chicago Cubs’ push for a World Series title — at least they have the National League’s best roster to face that daunting challenge.

Special feature Breaking down Phillies vs. Rays Position-by-position comparisons, pitching matchups, prediction, more

So which story line emerges?

If you’re still having trouble believing the Rays are here, let that thought go — in a hurry. They’re for real. They play excellent defense, keyed by the double-play combination of Jason Bartlett and Akinori Iwamura. The fact that Bartlett, who has one home run, was voted the team’s MVP by the local media should tell you something about how this team wins — pitching, defense and just enough timely hitting.

They will have the lowest team ERA among the four AL playoff teams, and they have a huge home field advantage in The Trop, where they led the majors with 57 wins, including — get this — series sweeps of the Red Sox (twice), Angels and Cubs.

They also have a crazy knack for coming from behind late in games.

The Rays will be a clear favorite in the division series against the White Sox, armed with the better pitching staff and home field advantage. And, the Rays could draw an edge in an ALCS matchup if the Red Sox and Angels series goes the distance.

The chances of that happening appear to growing slimmer, as the Red Sox’s injury list continues to expand. On top of Mike Lowell’s hip, J.D. Drew’s back and Julio Lugo’s quad, now we have Josh Beckett’s oblique. He’s questionable even for Game 3, which would thrust Paul Byrd or Tim Wakefield into a key start.

In contrast, the Angels have gotten healthy at the right time, reuniting double-play combination Howie Kendrick and Erick Aybar, and welcoming back third baseman/DH Chone Figgins and lefty Joe Saunders. And oh by the way, the Angels turned the tide and beat the Red Sox eight times in nine games this season.

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