ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The chaos and euphoria that emanated from the Red Sox' clubhouse after a 5-hour, 44-minute, 16-inning, 1-0 win over the Rays was accompanied by plenty of storylines early Monday morning.

Josh Beckett doing what an ace does, and then some. Dustin Pedroia garnering the game-winning hit and a new nickname. Josh Reddick adding to his mini-legend with one of the catches of the season. Jason Varitek's 39-year-old body helping guide the pitchers through all 51 Tampa Bay batters. And even the bullpen's save-the-day performance, highlighted by the continuation of Daniel Bard's scoreless streak and Alfredo Aceves' empty-stomach three innings of hitless relief.

One item, however, might have slipped through the cracks. 

Jonathan Papelbon ended it all by converting his first save opportunity of what figures to be a second half unlike any other in his career.

"It's going to be very different," the closer said prior to pitching a flawless 16th inning. "I'm very, very, very confident. I'm excited to get this second half underway and see what happens after the season."

This could be very well Papelbon's final few months in a Red Sox uniform, with the potential of free agency looming after the season. If he did leave, it would mark the end of the longest run of any closer in team history, one which has seen him convert 209 of 236 save opportunities. Only one player, Francisco Rodriguez, has accumulated more saves than the Sox closer over his six-year run as the team's game-ender.

For only the second time in his career, Papelbon didn't go to the All-Star Game. ("I wish I was there, but I also used it to reflect a little bit on my second half," he said.) And now, with his second appearance of the second half under his belt, it's time for the 30-year-old to enter a world even he views as somewhat uncertain. All he knows is what he has always controlled -- saving games.

"I'm not worried about it," said Papelbon of the uncertainty that goes with living out the last year of a contract. "Honestly, I show up every day hoping I can get in the game and compete because that's what gets me off. I can't do anything but focus on my job, and my job is when there is a save opportunity to covert it. That is my one and only job, and that's all I can focus on. Can't do nothing else."

When Rodriguez was dealt from the Mets to the Brewers, thereby ensuring that he is slotted to be one of the other options on what is promising to be a crowded closers free agent market, Papelbon paid attention. But, he still didn't let the transaction shape his way of thinking.

"Of course I pay attention," Papelbon said. "That's [Rodriguez's] prerogative to do that. It's his career and nobody else's. I can't do anything about that. If somebody came up to me and told me I should do this or do that, I would tell him to [take a hike]. This is their career. He's got to set a plan, and hopefully it works out for him."

Papelbon has always had a plan, and getting to this year -- his last under his current contract -- in good health and pitching well has been a huge part of it. 

Thus far, as Tuesday would suggest, things have gone fairly well for the closer. He has converted 21 of 22 save chances, struck out 53 and walked eight. He is consistently displaying velocity equal to the height of his success. But judgments are going to be made come contract time, and all numbers will be digested, including what can sometimes be a reliever's worst friend -- ERA.

This is seemingly the only frustration Papelbon is saddled with regarding this 2011 season, an ERA that is hovering just below 4.00. He understands how some will view the number, even if, as he points out, this season's total might not be a good representation of what he has delivered.

"At the end of the day if you were to ask me if I was the owner of the Boston Red Sox and I'm going to give you a closer who is going to give you 38 to 40 saves a year, might blow two or three, and he's going to give up 20 runs in non-save situations, I would take it," Papelbon explained. "That's just how the year is going."

The point Papelbon is getting at revolves around games like Saturday night, when he enters a game in a non-save situation (in that case, with the Red Sox leading by four runs). This season, in save situations he has allowed seven earned runs in 22 1/3 innings (2.82 ERA), while in non-save scenarios he has given up 10 in 16 1/3 innings (5.51 ERA).

Compare that to last year where his ERA in save situations was 4.36, and you could see where Papelbon's senses are heightened as to how many, as he calls them, "miscellaneous runs" have come his way in '11.

"I say that because that's what they are," he explained. "If you look at one-run games, I go out there and do my job. Two-run games or three-run games, the same thing. [Saturday night] is kind of par for the course for me. I start to get up, get in the game and [Rays manager Joe] Maddon has three pitching changes and I'm up and down three times, a couple of errors and next thing you know half of an inning is 40 minutes long. The normal person doesn't get that. My No. 1 thing is I enjoy competing. My coaches and my peers they know that. That's really all that matters.

"But I'm more experienced than I ever have been and I think with experience comes positive gains," he continued. "I think the biggest thing for me, in my situation, numbers are so jaded. The person that just comes along who doesn't really know baseball might say I'm not doing this or that. But the person who does know baseball can understand how hard it is mentally, more than anything. To do it with consistency. That's the biggest thing for me, trying to stay mentally fit, day in, day out. And in my job that's the hardest thing."

Early Monday morning, we saw what makes Papelbon so valuable -- the ability to finish off things for the Red Sox in some unique save scenarios.

As for what lays ahead?

"It's exciting, but I've had a lot of exciting things in my life," said Papelbon. "Basically I'm just going out there and continue to do what I'm doing. I'm not thinking about things more just because of my situation. I just want to go out there and compete. That's the only thing I can really control. Whatever happens, happens."