ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ The calendar turns to September Sunday, which seems like a good time to ask:
Are the Rays going to make the playoffs?
If they play like they did Saturday in a 9-6 win that was their second in a row over the wild-card leading Indians, and that moved them back into a tie for the No. 2 slot, the answer would seem to be yes.
Or at least if they can hit, launching four homers, and play defense, with several dazzling plays, the way they did.
The pitching, as has been the case for a while, still needs to tightened up a bit, though the main bullpen guys have looked good, and there are reinforcements coming, including possibly Tyler Glasnow by next weekend.
The win improved the Rays to 79-58 and moved them into a tie with Oakland for the second wild-card, and just a half-game behind the Indians.
Diego Castillo, one of the relievers they should be concerned about, put them in a bad spot from the start, or, should we say, from the open, on Saturday, allowing a single to the second batter of the game and a homer to the third.
But the Rays, who seemed to have rediscovered their swings in the last week, got those runs back and more.
Ji-Man Choi homered in the second, his fourth extra base hit in six games. Tommy Pham, continuing his hot streak, hit a two-run homer in the third, his 20th of the season, to put them ahead.
They added on with three in the sixth, as Avisail Garcia, who had a key RBI single Friday, hit a two-run homer, and Eric Sogard singled in a run.
And then three more in the seventh. Travis d'Arnaud, who homered Thursday, went deep again. And after they loaded the based on singles by Choi and Garcia and a Kevin Kiermaier walk, they got two on a Matt Duffy groundout and an Indians error.
Jalen Beeks, another pitcher that they need more from, gave up a bunch of hard-hit balls, but made it through three innings without any runs as the Rays caught several of the rocket shots.
Overall, it was a good night for the defense. Kiermaier and Wendle, getting a start at short, teamed to throw out Francisco Lindor at the plate in the third. Sogard snared a laser by Puig and threw him out at first, one of several plays he made. Pham threw out Franmil Reyes trying to get to second in the fourth.
The Indians got a couple off Rays mop-up man Ricardo Pinto in the eighth, and when they do so again in the ninth manager Kevin Cash went straight to de facto closer Emilio Pagan.
Are they good enough?
The computer forecasts _ does that sound familiar? _ are a bit split. (Do they have spaghetti models for baseball?) are not as favorable since their recent struggles. Baseball-reference.com has their chances (through Friday) at only 29.7 percent, fivethirtyeight.com 43, ESPN 52.2, fangraphs.com 52.3, Baseball Prospectus at 62.9.
Of further caution, the Rays have the most difficult remaining schedule of the AL playoff contenders, based on how fangraphs.com figures it based on projected winning percentage of opponents. The Rays still have series with Dodgers, Red Sox and Yankees.
