Sweep puts Rays right back in race

Everyone in the Tampa Bay Rays' clubhouse knew what was at stake the last couple of nights against Boston, even if they didn't come out and say so beforehand. They needed to win both games in the two-game series against the Red Sox because the dwindling number of days left in the season doesn't give them the luxury of treading water much longer.

So pick apart this or that about two nights of riveting baseball at Tropicana Field if you want, but the Rays got what they came for. They beat the Red Sox 6-4 Wednesday night to complete the sweep about 22 hours after their utterly brilliant and bizarre 13-inning victory in the opening game of the set.

"We're almost there," Manager Joe Maddon said. "We made some mistakes tonight that permitted them to hang tight, plays we would normally make. But the thing I do like is the intensity within the group. Before the game is beginning we're really believing we're going to win this game.

"We're starting to build the crescendo effect where on a nightly basis you believe you're going to win, and we have to do that every night. I'm not saying we weren't into it before, but it just seems to be increasing in intensity. That's a good thing."

And while the Red Sox now head to New York for four games against the Yankees - they are 8-0 this season against New York - the Rays head west for six games knowing they are in the playoff race for real. Yes, they would have been, cough, "in" the race even had they lost the last two nights, but they trail Boston now by only three games for the wild card.

"We have to sustain what we have going on right now," Maddon said. "We cannot ebb and flow any more."

Had these last two nights ebbed the other way, the margin would have been seven games.

Big swing.

Actually, they got four big swings in this game with home runs from Carlos Pena, Carl Crawford, Jason Bartlett and (this is not a typo) Pat Burrell. That came after Evan Longoria's really big swing with two outs in the 13th inning in the opening game, a two-run walk-off homer in the Rays' 4-2 win.

Home runs make people talk and make great highlights for the sports shows, but the Rays won both these games because of their pitching - starting and relief. David Price was solid Wednesday night, following Maddon's pregame edict to throw first-pitch strikes and stay ahead in the count.

It worked.

Price worked quickly, confidently, and under control.

"Best stuff tonight that I've seen, best stuff," Maddon said.

He faced 24 hitters and got 14 first-pitch strikes. Even when he missed, he didn't fall far behind in the count. He gave up a pair of homers, but they were solo jobs - the same as Matt Garza allowed the night before. He walked no one.

"I believe this - we talked about David, he's a young pitcher. You can see him having a couple of good starts in a row, but there's always the chance of a bad one because he's so inexperienced," Maddon said. "But a start like tonight against these guys, under these circumstances, I think can really do a lot for his self-confidence. And that's all he needs."

Price certainly sounded confident afterward.

"I feel like I'm right where I want to be right now," he said.

Lest we forget, the bullpen was outstanding in these two nights as well, allowing just one earned run in nine innings of work.

"The bullpen has been incredible," Maddon said.

So the Rays head to Seattle and Anaheim with heightened stakes and a chance to make up ground on either the Yankees or Boston - one of them has to lose this weekend, right? That's getting ahead of things, though. That violates Maddon's prime directive of looking anywhere but inward.

"I'll say it one more time," he said. "I'm just concerned about the Rays."

They are 12 games over .500 for the first time this year and their work the last two nights means that any conversation about the division or wild card must continue to include them. There have been times when it looked like they were teetering on falling off the pace and even out of the race, but two big wins against the Red Sox means there's less to be concerned with now than there was before.