The Rays clinched a spot in baseball's expanded 2020 playoff field by sweeping a doubleheader from the Orioles on Thursday in Baltimore, 3-1 and 10-6.
Earning back-to-back postseason berths for just the second time in franchise history was an accomplishment.
But it's clear this group has a list of further goals, such as winning the American League East race, earning a top seed in the eight-team field, and getting deep into the tournament.
"If that time comes, when that time comes, we're going to be very proud of ourselves," manager Kevin Cash said before Thursday's games. "Every team that gets in should be pretty proud of themselves. This (year) has been pretty challenging on everybody involved.
"But just getting in was not what this team was built to do. And certainty it's something that we're not going to be necessarily satisfied with."
The wins improved the Rays to 33-18 and ensured they will be part of the eight-team AL playoff field.
A division title is definitely within sight, as the Rays hold a three-game lead over the surging Yankees with 10 games to play. The Rays have the second-best record in the league, a half-game behind the Central-leading White Sox and just ahead of the West-leading A's.
The three division winners and the second-place team with the best record get to host the best-of-three first-round series starting Sept. 29.
Infielder Joey Wendle said they have more work to do, starting with winning what would be their third East Division title, previously done in 2008 and 2010.
"We're in a position to do that," he said before the games. "If we continue to play good baseball from here on out, that would be our goal. Our short-term goal is to win the division, obviously.
"It's kind of hard to focus on that necessarily as a goal when we don't feel like we're playing well, so I think goal one is to kind of turn things around, start playing a little bit better, start putting together good at-bats, good games, good series. Here, (then) a good series when we go to New York (to face the Mets next). I think winning the division would be a product of that."
The first of the two seven-inning games Thursday was a tense 3-1 thriller.
The Rays lost a 1-0 lead in the sixth after a strong Blake Snell start. They rallied for two runs that scored on productive outs in the top of the seventh. And they hung on tightly as Diego Castillo walked two and third baseman Wendle, playing on the right side of second base as the Rays were shifted with a four-man outfield, made a spectacular play for the final out on a force at second.
"Tremendous play," Cash said. "Joey, how he was positioned right there, you don't see many guys make that play and have enough awareness."
Snell dazzled through the first five innings, enough that he was thinking a about a complete game, which would have been the Rays' first since Matt Andriese on May 14, 2016.
But the Rays led only 1-0, and when Snell opened the sixth with a leadoff walk, which was followed by a bunt, Cash opted for Castillo, figuring he was a better matchup against the right-handers at the top of the Baltimore lineup.
Snell, from the look of things on TV, wasn't happy with the decision, which he admitted later he was. But he said he also knows that Cash has to do what's best, and it was his own fault for the walk.
"Me looking at it in my eyes, (I was) upset because obviously that's what I want to do, I want to go as deep as I can," Snell said. "But Cash's got to manage, and I'm trusting him. He's a very good manager. He did what was best to win a ballgame, which we did."
The winning rally in the seventh was a team effort.
Pinch-hitter Randy Arozarena drew a leadoff walk against Cesar Valdez. Michael Perez followed with a double to right to put two in scoring position. Yoshi Tsutsugo, moved to the leadoff spot in a reconfigured lineup that had been struggling with runners in scoring position, followed with a right-side grounder that scored the speedy Arozarena. Brandon Lowe, whose seven-game hitting streak ended, followed with a sac fly to left to make it 3-1.
The nightcap, where the Rays were the home team since it was the makeup of the Aug. 27 postponement at Tropicana Field, was a back-and forth affair until Tampa Bay broke it open with four runs in the fifth.
The Rays took a 3-0 lead in the first on a three-run homer by Willy Adames, who had struck out four times in the opener, extending his slump to 2-for-36 with 24 Ks.
The Orioles closed to within 3-2 on a Hanser Alberto homer in the second and a Ryan Mountcastle RBI double in the third off starter Trevor Richards. The Rays extended the lead to 4-2 when Hunter Renfroe, in his first action since Sunday, homered leading off the third.
The Orioles got four in the top of fourth to go up 6-4. Two of those were on a homer by Rio Ruiz that ended Richards' night, two on a two-out double by DJ Stewart off reliever Ryan Thompson.
The Rays came back and tied it on a two-out homer, on a 2-2 count, by Wendle.
Then they went ahead with four in the fifth. A Mike Brosseau walk, an Adames infield single and a Nate Lowe single got them a run. A bunt single by Manuel Margot and an infield single by Kevan Smith another. Then sac flies by Wendle and Arozarena scored two more.
The teams were playing a doubleheader to make up for the Aug. 27 game at Tropicana Field that was postponed as part of the sportswide effort to draw attention to systemic racism and social justice issues.
