As baseball winds down and makes its way to the final weeks of the season, the Tampa Bay Rays are a handful of games away from a wild card berth. All season, it's looked as though the Boston Red Sox would cruise to its seventh postseason appearance in nine seasons and the Rays would fall victim to Major League Baseball's absurd rule that there be only eight playoff teams (instead of 10 or 12).
But it's September 12th and the Rays are only 3.5 games away from clinching a playoff spot. It might have seemed too high a mountain to climb at the end of August, but Tampa Bay swept an ailing Boston team this past weekend. Factor in that four more of Tampa Bay's remaining games are against the Red Sox and the Rays clubhouse has reason to believe they can be playing in October.
After all, the Red Sox have lost Josh Beckett, their best pitcher, to an ankle sprain. Since the All-Star Break, Beckett has compiled a better record (7-3), earned a lower ERA (2.49), pitched more innings (62.2) and struck out more batters (67) than any other pitcher for Boston. According to Red Sox manager Terry Francona, he's being rushed back to the mound only a week after spraining his right ankle.
Outside of Beckett, Boston's starting rotation is not performing well as of late. In one of his most recent starts, Andrew Miller gave up 6 runs before the bottom of the second inning. John Lackey has four losses in his last five starts (all of which he gave up 4 runs or more before he was pulled). Tim Wakefield is on 5 straight losses. Jon Lester is the only one doing marginally well and he has to be tired after throwing over 100 pitches in seven of his last eight games.
"At this point you panic," David Ortiz said after Tampa Bay won its third game in a row against Boston. "You've got to panic at this point. Of course you're freaked out."
This certainly doesn't mean Boston will implode because the team has a lineup full of hitters (they're averaging over 5 runs a game), but the Red Sox are a team in descent, whereas the Rays are a team that has seemed to hit its stride.
At the end of July, the Rays stood at a record of just 56-51 and a postseason appearance was just a pipe dream. But in August, the team won 18 of its 28 games, had its highest batting average (.251), scored the most runs (121), and held its opponents to the fewest amount of runs (87). Going into the home stretch, the Rays are ascending, saving their best for last.
A one-horse race in July has turned into a dead sprint between two thoroughbreds in September. That's good news for those of us who enjoy a good wild card race. That's good news for those of us who enjoy a good month of baseball.
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