Domes of doom

St. Petersburg - Leave it to A.J. Pierzynski to summarize perfectly the way he and his teammates feel after losing two straight to Tampa Bay in the less than friendly environs of Tropicana Field.

"We're veterans, we've been through this before and we know it's not over until it's finished," Pierzynski said after the Sox lost 6-2 Friday night. "We're going to go home to our park, get out of this dome, have real baseball and see what happens."

What has happened to the Sox in domes this season hasn't been pretty. Friday's loss dropped their record this season in domes to an anemic 4-18.

What's the deal?

Rays manager Joe Maddon tried to offer up an explanation.

"I don't know; primarily you think about speed," Maddon said. "We're probably more of a speed-laden team than they are. Their style of play is different than ours.

"We're used to playing here and inside; they're not. You would think that would present an advantage to us."

It doesn't hurt that the Rays played in front of 35,000 cowbell-crazy fans in their first two games.

"It's exciting to see," winning pitcher Scott Kazmir said. "The Rays fans all come out like that, and before the game starts they have chants going and whatnot. It really pumps us up."

The Sox are hoping to get that same sort of edge when they return home Sunday to what they expect will be a sea of fans clad in black.

The last "blackout" at U.S. Cellular Field worked wonders, sparking the Sox to a thrilling 1-0 win over Minnesota in their play-in matchup on Tuesday.

Blackout or not, after a rough few days in Tampa, Sox manager Ozzie Guillen just wants to get back to Chicago.

"Our ballpark, now we go back to being normal," Guillen said. "Our ballpark in summer, it shrinks. It's very, very small and the balls are flying out there easy.

"I think right now the weather has changed a little bit, and we saw it last time we played against Minnesota.

"We play good when we get back home."