THE FORCE IS STRONG WITH THESE RAYS FANS

Underneath his Rays jersey tonight, Giovanni Fraraccio will be wearing his lucky Darth Vader T-shirt.

He wore it for the Rays' American League Championship Series Game 7 win over the Red Sox in 2008, Matt Garza's no-hitter July 26 and the playoff-spot-clinching win last month against the Orioles.

It's lucky, the 41-year-old says. So lucky he won't clean it.

"I didn't want to wash off the luck," he said.

With the Rays' playoff lives on the line tonight, fans are pulling out all their superstitions - and prayers - to keep their World Series dreams alive.

Ray Roa, 25, of Tampa Heights will eat two Kayem Rays Dogs with ketchup and mustard before the game for good luck.

He also won't post anything on Twitter about the Rays, or baseball in general, anymore. That's 140 characters of bad luck, he said.

Patti Bast, 63, of Brandon will follow her away-game ritual, even though the team is home.

She'll sip wine out of a Rays wine glass, but only when they're batting. That's when they need the most help, she said.

"It doesn't always work, but it does sometimes," she said.

Brian Taylor, a Rays fan from Indianapolis, thinks working during the playoffs has been disastrous for the Rays. So, no work for him today. And he'll be wearing his lucky Devil Rays cap.

Jason Collette, 38, of Orlando wore Evan Longoria and Carl Crawford jerseys and a visor during Games 1 and 2 of the series. He forced himself to retire the jerseys after the losses and say goodbye to the visor.

He keeps statistics about his attendance record. He's 0-4 attending playoff games at Tropicana Field but 6-0on the road.

"So if the club wants to take me along to NYC (for a possible American League Championship Series matchup with the Yankees), I am available," he said.

He won't be at tonight's game.