ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Grant Balfour is unapologetic.

By his own admission, Tampa Bay’s hard-throwing reliever will say just about anything to talk himself into the right frame of mind to do his job.

And, if his shouting and swearing on the mound occasionally riles an opposing batter, then so be it.

“That’s what I’ve been doing all year long,” he said. “I’m not going to change.”

The ALCS-bound Rays wouldn’t have it any other way.

Balfour has had a career year while contributing to one of the biggest bullpen turnarounds in major league history. He also was instrumental in Tampa Bay breezing through its opening-round playoff series against the Chicago White Sox.

The right-hander appeared in all three games the Rays won, working 313 scoreless innings for a spotless 0.00 ERA with one walk and four strikeouts.

He fanned the only two batters he faced after entering Game 1 with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh, feeding off Chicago’s Orlando Cabrera, who took exception to Balfour’s bravura and exchanged words with the reliever.

Cabrera calmed down after being told that’s how Balfour motivates himself. But by then, the Rays pitcher was incensed.

“I thought he was trying to show me up,” said Balfour, who bailed Tampa Bay out of another tight situation in the sixth inning of Game 2, retiring Cabrera and Nick Swisher with a runner in scoring position to protect a one-run lead.

Considering the vital role he played in the first two victories, it seemed fitting that Balfour closed out Monday’s series clincher, fanning Ken Griffey Jr. to finish a two-inning stint and send Tampa Bay into the next round against World Series champion Boston.

Histrionics or not, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen has an appreciation for the way Balfour approaches the game.

“I love it. That’s my style. I think he’s great for baseball. I think he shows people he wants to win. He shows people the enthusiasm of the game, the passion of the game. I don’t have any problem with that,” Guillen said. “That’s the way he is. I tip my hat to it, and people have to respect that. He’s not hurting anybody. He just shows people he wants to be there.”

Balfour’s conversations with himself on the mound haven’t been his only motivation.

He’s still upset that he didn’t make it through the final cuts of spring training and wound up spending the first two months of the season at Triple-A Durham, where he was 1-0 with a 0.38 ERA in 15 appearances.

He rejoined the Rays on May 30 and was vital to the team’s success the rest of the summer, going 6-2 with a 1.54 ERA in 51 games. He struck out 82 in 58 1-3 inning, leading all major league relievers in strikeouts per nine innings (12.65).

With the team’s other outstanding middle reliever, left-hander J.P. Howell (6-1, 2.22), also enjoying a breakout year, Tampa Bay’s bullpen did an about-face from 2007, when its collective ERA of 6.16 was the worst in the majors in 50 years.

Rays relievers pitched to a 3.55 ERA this season, fifth-lowest in the majors. Opponents batted .220 after hitting .303 against the bullpen in 2007.

It’s been a long road back for the Australian-born Balfour, who had major operations on his elbow and shoulder in 2005. He missed that entire season and spent the following year in the low minors with Cincinnati before catching on with Milwaukee in 2007. The Rays acquired him in a trade for pitcher Seth McClung.

“He has a chip,” said Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon, well aware of how Balfour feels about being designated for assignment at the end of spring training.

“That’s good, as long as he channels it in the right way, and he has to this point. … I know that he knows he’s a big part of this team. I know he knows we wouldn’t be in this position without him.”

Maddon, however, insisted the Rays didn’t make a mistake by leaving the 30-year-old off the opening-day roster.

Instead, he thinks it was the best thing for Balfour, who reported to Durham after clearing waivers.

“You can look at it that way. But what if he did make the team, then did not learn the lessons he had to learn to get to this particular point?” Maddon said.

“Once we did that, the world changes. His whole life changes. How he reacts to that moment changes him. … You have to say it was the right thing to do. From his personal growth perspective, he may not have turned into this person had he made that team out of spring training.”