Up five with 10 to play.
That phrase was bandied about on Thursday afternoon after the Tampa Bay Rays recorded their majors-best 16th series sweep with a 10-1 victory over the Athletics.
The Rays (93-59), who have won six straight games, already have clinched a postseason berth but are looking to win the American League East. So plenty of work lies ahead for them, starting with Friday night in the opener of a three-game series in St. Petersburg, Fla., against the Boston Red Sox (83-70).
The Rays’ next seven games will be against AL East foes Boston and the New York Yankees (88-64) before Tampa Bay finishes the season at Philadelphia.
“(When you’re) going to the postseason, you want to feel good about yourselves and play good baseball,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said after his group improved to 53-25 at home and moved five games up on the second-place Yankees in the AL East.
“We’ve still got a lot of games left here that we want to play good, but this is certainly a turn in the right direction. Doing it at home is also nice.”
Tampa Bay’s Chandler Simpson recorded two stolen bases on Thursday — giving him 44 for the season — and had two hits to boost his average to .311.
Simpson is trying to become the third AL player in the past 26 years to top the AL in hitting and stolen bases, joining Ichiro Suzuki (2001) and Jose Altuve (2014).
Left-hander Ian Seymour (9-6, 4.27 ERA) will start Friday’s game for Tampa Bay. He is 1-0 with a 3.27 ERA in four career appearances (two starts) against Boston.
In Thursday’s series finale, the Red Sox avoided being swept by the Texas Rangers by rallying to a 4-3 win behind Trevor Story’s three-run homer in the eighth inning.
“Obviously, a tough series here,” Story said after hitting his first homer since May 13. “To steal that last one is huge. It’s some momentum we can ride out to Tampa.”
Boston’s magic number to reach the playoffs sits at three.
With nine games left in the regular season, Boston holds the AL’s No. 2 wild-card spot — 5 1/2 games behind the rival Yankees and five ahead of the Cleveland Guardians. Therefore, it’s likely the Red Sox will square off with the Yankees in New York when the playoffs begin.
However, a good showing on Friday and a little help from the Rays — who will play four games in the Bronx over three days next week — could switch the playoff location to Boston when the AL wild-card series opens.
The Red Sox will send Ranger Suarez (7-4, 3.33 ERA) to the mound on Friday, and the left-hander has been a mixture of very good and fairly bad lately.
The 31-year-old is 3-1 with a 3.64 ERA over his past five starts, posting three strong outings and two in which he was hit hard.
Combined, he beat the Kansas City Royals and Baltimore Orioles by allowing one run in 14 innings (0.64 ERA) in his past two outings.
Suarez owns no record and a 3.65 ERA in two career starts and one relief appearance against the Rays.
–Field Level Media
