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If the Tampa Bay Rays hope to make a run at making the playoffs for a sixth consecutive season, a good time to start would be Monday evening in the opener of a four-game series against the visiting Minnesota Twins.

The Rays (67-69) are seven games back of the final two American League wild-card spots, currently occupied by the Twins (74-62) and Kansas City Royals (75-63).

“It’s a big four games for us,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said after a 4-3 loss to the visiting San Diego Padres on Sunday in the rubber match of their three-game series.

Tampa Bay hasn’t won more than three games in a row since May and are two games under .500 since the All-Star break.

“We’ve got to get hotter than hot,” Cash said. “Splits aren’t going to cut it, series wins, two out of three. We’ve got to find some ways to do some really special things. You don’t want to give that message to the guys, you want to stay in the moment and try to win the game tonight, but there’s no doubt, it’s an uphill climb.”

After the series against the Twins, the Rays play the Baltimore Orioles, Philadelphia Phillies and Cleveland Guardians, three teams that are at or near the top of their respective divisions.

“We put ourselves in this spot where we’ve got to play really good baseball and we’ll probably need some help from some other teams,” Cash said.

The Twins are coming off a satisfying 4-3 win against the visiting Toronto Blue Jays in the deciding contest of their three-game series Sunday.

After the Blue Jays scored two runs in the top of the eighth to take a 3-1 lead, Royce Lewis blasted a three-run homer in the bottom half of the inning off Chad Green to put Minnesota ahead.

“That eighth inning brought a lot of oxygen into our room and to our dugout and, I think, into the bodies of all of our players,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Royce punctuated it. The guys before him went up and did their jobs and got on base with some really good swings against a good reliever.”

Lewis also moved to second base for the first time in his career in the sixth inning and fielded all three grounders cleanly.

“Sometimes, you get a little tingle when you’re doing something new. It wakes you up again and keeps you on your toes,” Baldelli said. “It gets you going.”

The Twins plan to start right-hander Simeon Woods Richardson in the series opener.

Wood Richardson (5-3, 3.85 ERA) won back-to-back starts before getting a no-decision in his most recent outing last Tuesday, when he allowed four runs on just three hits over 4 2/3 innings of an 8-6 loss in 10 innings to the Atlanta Braves.

Woods Richardson faced the Rays the only time of his career, on June 20, and did not get a decision in a 7-6 loss in 10 innings. He allowed two runs and four hits in six innings, departing with the score tied 2-2.

Tampa Bay plans to start right-hander Zack Littell on Monday.

Littell (5-8, 3.89) is coming off the 15-day injured list after leaving his last start early on Aug. 14 against the Houston Astros with right shoulder soreness.

He has allowed one earned run or fewer in each of his past four outings.

Littell spent the first three seasons of his career with the Twins, going 6-2 with a 4.52 ERA in 43 games, making two starts. He is 0-1 with a 3.21 ERA in four games (two starts) against his former team.

–Field Level Media