Rays are armed and ready

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Tampa Bay reliever Trever Miller calls them “rocking-chair moments,” the ones that will come to mind decades from now when you’re regaling your grandchildren with tales from your playing days.

“Some guys are afraid of the big moments,” Miller said.

Not James Shields, the Rays’ 26-year-old right-hander who will start Game 1 of the American League Championship Series against the Boston Red Sox tonight in Tropicana Field.

“He wants the ball,” Miller said. “I think that’s what separates him from a lot of guys. You can see it in his eyes, that determined focus.”

The strength of Tampa Bay’s rotation has been depth -- though the Rays lack that front-of-the-rotation hammer such as CC Sabathia or Johan Santana, they have five quality starters who give them a chance to win night after night.

But Shields, a 2000 graduate of Newhall Hart High School and The Times’ Valley player of the year in 1999, has emerged as the team’s ace, not so much because his stuff is overpowering, but because his mental makeup is.

“He’s got tremendous focus and a lot of self-confidence,” Rays Manager Joe Maddon said. “He’s got all this inner strength, intangible stuff, that permits him to be able to do these things in these moments.”

One of those moments came in Game 1 of the AL division series, when Shields, in his first-ever playoff start, gave up three runs and six hits in 6 1/3 innings of a 6-4 win over the Chicago White Sox, setting the tone for a series the Rays won to advance to the ALCS.

“I’ve always thrived on those kinds of moments, I’ve always been competitive, I’ve always wanted the ball,” said Shields, who went 14-8 with a 3.56 earned-run average this season and will oppose Boston right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka tonight.

“I grew up with two older brothers who I always had to deal with. They kicked me out of all the Little League games, all the home run derbies in the frontyard. I was a little runt, always fighting my way to get back into the game.”

Shields, who threw a one-hit shutout to beat the Angels on May 9, won’t burn up radar guns with his 91-mph fastball, but he pounds the strike zone and complements his fastball with an outstanding changeup -- “The great equalizer,” he said -- a cut fastball and curve.

His father, Jack, was a huge fan of Dodgers pitchers Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax, “and one of the main things he told me is that those guys were bulldogs,” Shields said. “They were old-school pitchers who went deep into the game. I like to consider myself more of an old-school pitcher.”

Shields is so competitive that when he was first called up to the big leagues in 2006, Maddon tried to tone him down.

“He would actually get a little bit too assertive during games,” Maddon said. “He’s learning to control his emotions a bit.”

Not completely. Fuming about Coco Crisp’s hard slide into Rays second baseman Akinori Iwamura on June 4 in Fenway Park, Shields drilled the Red Sox outfielder in the hip in his first at-bat the following night, touching off a wild benches-clearing brawl.

Shields drew a six-game suspension for the incident, and four teammates were suspended, but the fight helped galvanize the Rays, who went from a major league-worst 66-96 in 2007 to 97-65 and an AL East title in 2008.

“It brought us together,” Shields said. “It showed me how we had each others’ backs, no matter what the situation was. If you don’t have that, if you don’t trust teammates, you’re not going to have a team. That’s one reason why we’re here, that team unity.”

Pitching, defense and timely hitting also had a little something to do with the Rays being here.

Tampa Bay has a deep rotation, the Rays have shut-down relievers from the left and right side, and they surround middle-of-the-order thumpers Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria with outstanding speed.

Tampa Bay, which never had a winning season in the first 10 years of the franchise, fended off the Red Sox and New York Yankees to win the rugged AL East, turning doubters into believers along the way. It is no fluke that they are here.

“They shouldn’t be a surprise after 162 games and a playoff series,” Red Sox Manager Terry Francona said. “They went from the bottom to the top, and it’s a great story for baseball. It made our life a little more miserable this year.

“But if you look at their team, from top to bottom, it shouldn’t be a surprise. They have a very good rotation, a deep bullpen that allows them to match up, they have power, and they catch the ball better than any team in the league. They have a really good thing going. Our job is to derail that.”

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com