Closer Troy Percival was left off the Tampa Bay Rays' roster for their American League Division Series against the Chicago White Sox because of back tightness.

Percival had 28 saves this season, but just one came after Aug. 13. In addition to the back injury, the right-hander, 39, missed 42 games during three stints on the disabled list with left hamstring and right knee injuries.

"I still have the concern about his health," Rays manager Joe Maddon said before Thursday's opener.

Dan Wheeler filled in for Percival, and converted 13 of 18 save opportunities.

Rookie left-hander David Price, taken first overall in the 2007 amateur draft, made the Rays' playoff roster, which was finalized Thursday. He went 12-1 with a 2.30 ERA in 19 minor league games at three levels this season before posting a 1.93 ERA in one start and four relief appearances with Tampa Bay.

LUCKY PRICE: Left-hander David Price made the Rays' playoff roster in his first professional season.

"That's something I wanted for myself," said Price, who was taken first overall in the 2007 amateur draft.

Price went 12-1 with 2.30 ERA in 19 minor league starts at three different levels. He posted a 1.93 ERA in five games, including one start with Tampa Bay.

BUSH OVER SUPPAN: Dave Bush will start for Milwaukee in Game 3 of its series against the Phillies on Saturday at Miller Park. He was 9-10 with a 4.18 ERA in 31 games, including 29 starts. The right-hander hasn't won since beating the Pirates 3-1 on Aug. 29.

"Besides CC (Sabathia), over the last two or three months, Bush has been our second-best pitcher," manager Dale Sveum said. "He's really thrown the heck out of the ball for quite a while now and kept us in every game. He's pitching with a lot of confidence."

BECKETT THROWS SIDE SESSION ON OFF DAY: Boston Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett threw a side session Thursday during an off-day in the playoff series against the Los Angeles Angels playoff series and remains scheduled to start Game 3 Sunday in Boston.

Beckett, originally scheduled to start Game 1, injured a muscle in his side last Friday during a bullpen session.

"He ended up with 67 pitches, which is a pretty aggressive side, but I think we probably needed to do that," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "We'll monitor him as we go, but the medical people were out there and I think we were very pleased with the way things went."

The Red Sox lead the series 1-0 going into tonight's game in Anaheim.

NERVOUS ZIM: Rays senior adviser Don Zimmer won four World Series rings as the New York Yankees' bench coach and two more during his playing career with the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Yet "Popeye" was nervous before the start of the Rays' AL division series against the Chicago White Sox on Thursday.

Zimmer was talking with two sons of Tampa Bay principal owner Stuart Sternberg near the batting cage and the topic came up.

"I said, 'How do you guys feel?' " Zimmer said. "One said, 'I'm nervous,' and I looked at the other one, and I said, 'How do you feel?' And he said, 'I'm nervous.' One asked me how do I feel. I said 'I'm 77 and I'm nervous.' It's just fun, that's all. We should all have fun and let the best team win."

Zimmer has been part of a surprising playoff team before, when he managed the 1989 Chicago Cubs, who like the 2008 Rays, were given little or no chance of success.

"It's just been fun for me to watch these guys play this year," Zimmer said. "The things that happened to this club. (Evan) Longoria and (Carl) Crawford go down. We go on a 10-game road trip, and we say, we could very easily lose 10 games in a row and they wound up winning seven out of 10. You can't call this a fluke because we won 97 games."

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