HOUSTON _ As the Rays let the lead slip away for the third time Thursday afternoon, the biggest questions to be asked after what would have been a season-high tying fifth straight loss may have been, Were they as bad as they've looked the last week?
And, was there anything they would be able to do about it?
But then some things somewhat unusual of late happened.
First, the Rays rallied yet again, scoring three in the top of seventh.
Then the bullpen, the same one that was again causing consternation, came through, Emilio Pagan getting the final seven outs.
And by the end of the long afternoon, the Rays had reason to smile again, snapping their skid and avoiding a sweep as they hung on to beat the AL powerhouse Astros, 9-8.
Of related relevance, they avoided losing more ground in the AL wild-card race. Both teams they're chasing, Cleveland and Oakland, won. At 77-58, the Rays stayed 2{ games behind the top-card holding Indians and one behind the A's. Also, if you dare look, 4{ ahead of the Red Sox.
The most important of the Rays rallies came in the seventh.
Down 6-5, though with Astros starter Zack Greinke out of the game, they got a leadoff single from Matt Duffy and a one-out double by Austin Meadows, who earlier hit his 24th homer. A hard single by Tommy Pham got one run home, then a double by Ji-Man Choi two more.
And when the Astros were threatening to come back again in the bottom of the inning, even after Jose De Leon _ yes, that Jose De Leon _ got a huge out in striking out George Springer with two on, Choi came up the biggest defensive play.
With two Astros running on Jose Altuve's swing, Choi raced out from first base to shallow right and made an over-the-shoulder catch of a blooper that would have at least tied it.
The game went back and forth before an announced 33,051 who made it to downtown Houston for a Thursday afternoon game.
The Rays took leads of 1-0, 2-1 and 4-2. The Astros went ahead 5-4, and the Rays tied it. The Astros went up 6-5, the Rays came back to go up 8-6.
After losing twice to the Orioles and the series opener to the Astros without ever holding a lead, the Rays made the last two games competitive.
The problem was that once they got ahead, their bullpen had trouble keeping them there.
Wednesday, they lost when the bullpen, or more specifically, Diego Castillo, turned a one-run seventh inning lead into a two-run deficit as Cash insisted on sticking with him and what they felt were favorable matchups.
Thursday's they hung around in what was more of a team effort, though rookie lefty Colin Poche certainly has a featured role with a brutal fifth-inning performance, walking five of the seven batters he faced, forcing in two runs that put the Astros up 5-4.
That the Rays came right back and tied it hardly mattered, as the Astros went right back ahead as Altuve led off the sixth with a homer off Nick Anderson, who has been the Rays best reliever since coming over July 31 from the Marlins. He hadn't allowed a run in his first 10 appearances before Thursday.
Pagan, pitching for the first time in a week, got the final out of the seventh and got the Rays through the eighth. He gave up a homer to Abraham Toro to open the ninth, but finished it off from there.
The Rays headed home after the game, and open a series with the Indians on Friday night.
