ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The throwback Devil Rays jerseys worn for Saturday’s game provided proper context and contrast for the events that followed.
The team known primarily for losing during the 10 years under its original name celebrated its fourth American League East Division championship in 14 years since rebranding as the Rays under new ownership.
Tampa Bay got to pop bottles in clinching the East for a second straight time because it beat the Marlins, 7-3, after the second-place Red Sox blew an eighth-inning lead at home and lost to the Yankees, 5-3.
When the Rays clinched a playoff berth Wednesday for a team-record third straight time, they had a tame celebration in the clubhouse with a champagne toast. But they planned to get wet and wild Saturday night after winning the division and finishing ahead of the bigger-budgeted bullies such as the Red Sox and Yankees.
“I do think that is a fair goal that the guys came into this season with,’’ manager Kevin Cash said before the game. “Not only getting to the postseason but giving us every opportunity potentially to win the division, I think we’re right there.’’
There is a prestige factor in doing so, as well as getting another banner to hang at Tropicana Field, which hosted a season-high and sellout crowd of 23,783 on Saturday.
But also a practical benefit as the division champions: They avoid the one-game wild-card play-in game.
With an American League-best 96-59 record, the Rays also are in position, with seven games left, to earn the top seed and have home-field advantage for both the division and championship series. They have a five-game lead over the Astros, whom they visit for a three-game series starting Tuesday.
The Rays also are one win from matching the franchise record for wins, set by the 2008 team that went to the World Series. (The Rays’ 40-20 record in last year’s abbreviated season would extrapolate to 108-54.)
The Marlins took a 1-0 lead in the third, the only run starter Shane McClanahan gave up in his typically solid five innings.
The Rays tied it in the fourth, when Austin Meadows tripled with one out and Joey Wendle followed with a double.
They then went ahead in the fifth. Brett Phillips reached on an error, and catcher Mike Zunino, who a day earlier was named team MVP by the Tampa Bay chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, followed with a home run, his career-high 32nd of the season.
The Marlins got a run in the top of the sixth, but the Rays got it back when Wendle singled and went to second on an error, then scored on a Yandy Diaz single. The Marlins got another run in the seventh, and the Rays answered again as Zunino singled and Brandon Lowe doubled.
The Rays added two more in the eighth as Diaz singled and scored on a Phillips sac fly, then Lowe doubled in Kevin Kiermaier.
Pete Fairbanks, the Rays’ third reliever of the game, was on the mound for the final out.
The Rays also won the AL East in 2008, 2010 and 2020. This was the first time they clinched it at home.
