St. Petersburg, Fla. ? The young Tampa Bay Rays shrugged off question after question about team psyche. They find it laughable that anybody believes they may not have the resolve to close out Boston in the AL championship series.

“It really is funny,” pitcher James Shields said Friday, some 15 hours after the defending World Series champion Red Sox forced Game 6 in the ALCS with the second-biggest comeback in postseason history.

It’s the type of defeat that might destroy some teams. But the Rays have been resilient all year and believe they have the makeup to rebound after not completing the job at Fenway Park on Thursday night.

“I know where we’ve come from, where we are right now, and I have total faith that we’re going to finish this thing off,” manager Joe Maddon said, reflecting on Boston’s 8-7 win in Game 5.

“It’s about one moment at a time. We lost that game. That’s over with. There’s nothing we can do about that, and there’s nothing constructive we can take out of that, except I thought we played really well. I think that’s being overlooked.”

Despite blowing a 7-0 lead over the final three innings, the Rays won two of three at Fenway and are up in the series, three games to two.

Now, they’ve got two cracks at winning the pennant at Tropicana Field, where they compiled the best home record in baseball this season.

Shields, whose nickname is Big Game, will pitch Game 6 tonight against Josh Beckett, Boston’s struggling postseason ace who was lit up by Tampa Bay’s suddenly potent offense in Game 2.

“That was a tough loss. It was disappointing, but I woke up this morning feeling pretty good,” Shields said.

“When it comes down to it, they have more pressure than we do. They’re the defending champions. We’re a team that finished in last place last year.”