Manager Joe Maddon not only led the Rays to their first winning season, but they’re playing for the A.L. title.

MCT / Kenneth K. Lam

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — When Joe Maddon became the Tampa Bay Rays’ manager three years ago, he walked into a dismal situation.

The Rays had just completed their eighth season; all of which had ended with 91 or more losses. The team routinely fell 20 games out of first place by the All-Star break in July and played before indifferent crowds who’d frequently have entire sections of the domed Tropicana Field to themselves.

More important, Maddon felt the Rays’ players were beaten down. Years of getting pounded into the dirt by the Red Sox and Yankees, the traditional leaders in the American League East, had taken a toll.

“I just thought there were too many players that were just happy to be here,” Maddon said. “I thought this was kind of like a place for potential major-league players to hang out and say they were in the big leagues. Nobody was really concerned with winning. Just being here was good enough.”

Changing that culture wasn’t easy. The Rays lost 101 and 96 games in Maddon’s first two seasons, and when the Rays reported to spring training last February, virtually everyone in baseball pegged the Rays to keep losing. Oddsmakers in Las Vegas listed the Rays as a 150-to-1 shot to win the World Series.

But they didn’t listen. In fact, they got mad. “There was a lot of talent on our club and we knew our pitching was a lot better. It was just a matter of time,” said outfielder Carl Crawford, a seven-year veteran.

Now the Rays’ time has arrived. After always losing 90-plus games, the Rays won 97 this season. That was enough to edge the Red Sox and win the A.L. East. After a three-games-to-one series win over the Chicago White Sox in the first round of the playoffs, the Rays will host the Red Sox tonight in Game One of the A.L. Championship Series. The winner goes to the World Series.

The Rays are only the second team in major-league history to advance to the postseason after owning the worst record in baseball the year before. (The ’91 Atlanta Braves were the first.) Their 31-game improvement is the sixth-best in history.

“If you told me we’d be in this position in spring training, I’d think you were crazy,” said Eric Hinske, who was a Red Sox reserve last season.

The sudden success of the Rays has taken the Tampa-St. Pete area by storm. In a football-crazed town, baseball is now on the radar. School kids are shaving their heads in the Rayhawk style that several of the players have adopted. Crawford has found congratulatory notes on his car in his driveway. When the Rays returned from a season-ending road trip to Detroit, more than 1,000 fans packed a lobby at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater Airport.

“It’s a good feeling,” said 22-year-old Evan Longoria, the leading candidate for rookie-of-the-year honors. “I do see a lot of Longoria shirts and a lot of Rays’ shirts in general. This city has really come alive for our team. I was driving down the street yesterday and you look up at the signs and every restaurant has a sign out front that says ‘Go Rays.’ It’s pretty cool.”

Shrewd scouting and some key trades have produced young players such as Longoria, B.J. Upton and Scott Kazmir, who’ve come together and given the Rays excellent pitching, a strong defense and timely hitting. The combination has the Rays thinking they can keep their storybook season rolling along. “It’s what you dream of,” said Upton, 24. “Any time you get in this position, you want to take advantage of it. You have fun with it and I think that’s what I’m doing so far.”

The Rays and Red Sox are worlds apart in almost every way. The Red Sox have sold out 469 consecutive games at Fenway Park, one of the game’s treasured shrines. The Rays sold out just eight games this season in a domed stadium that wasn’t even built with baseball in mind. Boston fills its roster with high-priced superstars. The Sox payroll this season soared to $133 million, the fourth-highest in baseball. The Rays’ payroll is $43 million, the second-lowest. Ten Red Sox earn $6 million or more. Only one Ray (Carlos Pena) makes as much.

But money doesn’t guarantee wins. The Rays won the season series against the Red Sox, 10-8, and beat Boston four of six times last month. The Red Sox are certainly taking baseball’s upstarts seriously.

“A lot of people were expecting them to go down after the first half of the season. I don’t believe in that,” said Red Sox star David Ortiz. “I saw them whipping our butts so many times that I thought, ‘Something’s going down here.’ ”

Something is indeed going down with the Rays. Over the next 10 days, one of baseball’s biggest surprises ever will try to keep their dream season alive.

kmcnamar@projo.com