Seems more and more unlikely turning point awaits Rays

We interrupt this B.J. Upton strikeout for a Pat Burrell strikeout.

Wait, I'm sorry.

We interrupt this B.J. Upton strikeout for an important announcement:

Forget about the division title.

The Tampa Bay Rays trail the New York Yankees by nine games in the American League East after a third straight loss on what is now a 1-4 road trip after coming off those two big wins over the Boston Red Sox.

You know, those wins that were going to be the turning point.

I'm convinced there is no turning point, not this season.

The defending AL champions, whether they want to admit it or not, must turn their attention, or lack of it, toward the wild card.

I wonder how they'll knock themselves out of that race.

I'm not feeling it. I'm not seeing it.

I'm ready to call this a lousy season and be done with it.

I'm thinking a few weeks from now, we'll still be talking about how if the Rays get hot, you know, at the right time, they could shoot right past Boston. I mean, they're only 3½ games back.

It feels like more right now.

Maybe I'm speaking out of turn. Maybe the Rays will go out there this afternoon in Anaheim, flip that mighty switch and roll over the Angels.

But its getaway day, and the Rays have played like stiffs on days like this all season.

They've got a plane to catch.

They've got someplace else to be.

I just don't think that place is the playoffs.

They have done nothing to deserve that.

Maybe the magic just happens one season.

It might sound blasphemous, what with all that Rays talent, what with more than six weeks left in the season, but I'm not feeling it, I'm not seeing it.

Good one day, bad the next.

Good one week, bad the next.

Maybe that crushing loss in Seattle to begin this road trip will go down as a key moment in the collapse.

Or maybe it'll be the last three games, three lousy starting pitching performances, beginning with Scott Kazmir's gutless turn Sunday.

Last night, it was David Price who couldn't hold back the flood waters as the Rays' offense, as it has too often this season, produced absolutely nothing after scoring a bunch the previous game. That is this season: feast or famine.

I'm tired of the menu.

I'm not feeling it. I'm not seeing it.

Yes, they have a big home stand coming up - nine big games, series with Toronto and Baltimore and Texas. The Rays trail the Rangers by two games in the wild-card race.

Yeah, maybe next home stand. Go 8-1, go 7-2. Yeah, that's the ticket. Set yourself up for a run going into September.

We've been waiting for that run for months, waiting for the Rays to rip off a defining win streak. The Yankees have had one. The Rays haven't. They might not ever.

The Red Sox have had sizable problems since the All-Star break, but the Rays haven't caught them. They are there to be taken, and the Rays can't catch them.

And right now they don't deserve to catch them, or the Rangers.

As last season went on, as the Rays weaved their magic, I became convinced that it would have been all wrong if Joe Maddon's team didn't make the playoffs.

And when they lost Game 5 of the AL Championship Series in Boston, blowing that seven-run lead, I was just as convinced that their special season didn't deserve to end this way, that they deserved that pennant, they'd earned it. The Rays agreed.

They deserve no such thing this time.

They've earned nothing.

Actually, they've earned nine games back.

Yeah, they're still in the wild card.

Maybe they'll win this afternoon.

And a big home stand.

Maybe they'll start to earn it.

I'm not feeling it. I'm not seeing it.