ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ Of all the qualities that define this Rays team one that stands out the most may be resiliency.
The way the players have handled a series of unfortunate events, from a long list of injures, to a handful of crushing defeats to mistakes and misplays that flipped scores against them.
But time and time again they bounced back.
And Friday, as they opened the final homestand and nine-game stretch of the season in a tense battle for an AL wild-card spot, they did just that.
Twice, actually.
By the end of the long night, they'd beaten the Red Sox, 5-4 in 11 innings, Willy Adames delivering a walk-off single that scored pinch-runner Johnny Davis, the second big hit of the night for the shortstop.
That kept them tied for the second AL wild card at 91-63 with the Indians, who beat the Phillies, 5-2. The wild-card leading A's (92-61) played late against Texas.
(And, if you believe in this kind of thing, the Rays did all this on the 11th anniversary of the clinching their first ever playoff spot, Evan Longoria's catch of that foul ball beyond third still seared in many memories.)
The first time the Rays came back Friday was in the seventh inning.
Charlie Morton, who picked them up so much throughout the season, had let them down. He said enough to convince manager Kevin Cash to leave him in a 0-0 game in the seventh after allowing a one-out double on his 100th pitch, and then gave up a two-run homer to Mitch Moreland on his 103rd.
No problem.
The other Rays instead picked him up, coming right back to take a 3-2 lead. It helped that the Sox pulled Rick Porcello, who came up with one of his best starts in a bad year in holding them to a mere three hits.
Travis d'Arnaud, who has more big hits than any Ray, started the rally with a one-out single. Lefty Darwinzon Hernandez then walked Jesus Aguilar, who was pinch-hitting for struggling Kevin Kiermaier, and Mike Brosseau, who was batting because Avisail Garcia left the game ill, which became an issue later.
The Sox switched to righty Marcus Walden. Cash went to the bench again, hitting Nate Lowe for Matt Duffy. Lowe got one run home, hitting a slow bouncer to the left side and beating the throw to foil the inning-ending double play.
That paid off when Adames delivered a huge hit, driving a ball to right that scored the tying run.
The Rays got a bad bounce when Adames' ball hopped over the short fence in the corner for a ground-rule double, forcing Lowe to stop at third.
But then they got a good bounce when reliever Josh Taylor's 1-2 bounce skidded away from catcher Christian Vazquez, allowing Lowe to score the go-ahead run.
The Rays then added a huge run in the eighth when Austin Meadows led off with a walk and Ji-Man Choi doubled him in.
That mattered because closer Emilio Pagan blew the lead in the ninth.
It wasn't all his fault as Brosseau, the rookie infielder playing right field in place of Garcia, was unable to make the play on a high fly by Gorkys Hernandez that hit off the corner wall and caromed away for a triple.
A strike to the plate by center fielder Guillermo Heredia after catching a lineout to keep Hernandez at third.
Then Pagan made a worse mistake, a 1-2 fastball that Moreland hit over the left-field fence to tie it 4-4.
No problem, again.
The winning rally in the 11th stated benignly, with a two-out walk by Brosseau off Trevor Kelley. Robertson followed with a good eight-pitch at-bat and drew another walk.
Adames then delivered their eighth walk-off win of the year, and the third walk-off hit of his career.
While the Rays don't know how this season is going to turn out, they insist they are going to enjoy the experience and not bow to any associated pressure.
"It's a lot of fun," Cash said before Friday's game. "You want to be here. Would you rather be a team that's already clinched? Obviously. But if you're not, and you're competing here with nine games left, that's a lot of fun."
Asked if had a number of games in mind they'd like to win, Cash said yes, he did.
"Nine,' he said. "That would really help."
But, seriously ...
"You can play the math as much as you want," Cash said. "You look at the two teams that are in thick of it with us, they're not losing. So our best bet is just to go out and try to find out a way to win each night."
The Red Sox were officially eliminated earlier when the Indians won.
The Rays felt like they had the right guy starting the series in Morton, and for the first six innings they certainly did. Morton, pitching more at age 35 than ever before in a season, allowed only three singles and a walk, striking out seven, and needed only nine pitches to get through the sixth. But the seventh turned on them.
Once again, no problem.
