David Ortiz, right, enjoys a chuckle with Jason Bay of Trail, B.C., on Thursday. (Joe Ranze/Reuters)

Winning creates a rivalry, the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays claim, rather than years of testy relations between the teams.

That was the message coming out of the American League Championship Series Thursday, with both sides trying to play down a history of brawling that is adding spice to the buildup.

"Bad blood?" Red Sox slugger David Ortiz said. "There's no bad blood.

"This is not the WWF. It's a baseball game, bro.

"I mean, come on. I walk out there and they're hugging me and I hug them back. It's a game.

"Sometimes, you have things happening, but it stays on the field. It's not like you're going to walk to the parking lot and wait for somebody."

Game 1 in the best-of-seven series is Friday night.

"I know a lot is being made of past pugilistic events," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "But that has nothing to do with today — nothing.

"Those were when the Devil Rays were really struggling and the games had an entirely different tone to them. We're a different team, we're a different organization now."

They're AL East Division champions, to be more precise, and looking to end wild-card Boston's quest for a third World Series title in five years.

That is something that can turn Rays-Red Sox into a genuine rivalry, Maddon said.

"We had the one incident this year," Maddon said, referring to a bench-clearing brawl June 5 at Fenway Park that led to eight suspensions.

"That, to me, also is ancient history. The rivalry is being built because we're good, that's why. We're in the same division and now we're good.…

"This year truly is building into a legitimate rivalry whereas, in the past, I think it was more fabricated."

The tension between the teams has lingered since 2000, when Pedro Martinez plunked Gerald Williams in the first inning of a game in which the only hit the Boston ace yielded was a ninth-inning single to John Flaherty.

Williams rushed the mound and was ejected — and there's been trouble ever since.

'We're a lot alike'

Tampa Bay's Carl Crawford was one of the players suspended in June, when Boston's Coco Crisp charged the mound after being hit by a pitch by James Shields.

Crawford likened the most recent scrap to a younger brother finally deciding to stand up to an older brother who's always pushing him around.

Crawford noted it was not so long ago that the Red Sox were in a similar position with the New York Yankees.

"We're a lot alike," Crawford said. "And sometimes, when people who are alike get together and go after the same thing, they don't get along.

"It's not personal, though, between the players. It's what happens in baseball."

Boston manager Terry Francona agreed that with what's at stake, past skirmishes are the furthest thing from the players' minds.

Shields will start Game 1 for Tampa Bay, facing 18-game winner Daisuke Matsuzaka.

"You want to stick around for the whole series," said Tampa Bay's Jonny Gomes, who, like Shields, was suspended for his role in the June fight.

"No one is going to act out. This isn't the time or the place."

The Rays won the season series 10-8, including winning eight of nine games at Tropicana Field.