It's getting late for Rays to make their move

The Rays won't clinch or lose a playoff spot in the next three nights at Tropicana Field, no matter how they fare against the New York Yankees. But with only 63 games left in the regular season, the Rays also don't have the luxury of saying "It's early" if things go sour.

It isn't early any more.

They've been on a treadmill, chasing the Yankees and Boston Red Sox for about three months now. Although the Rays have played generally well and probably feel pretty good about their chances, the fact is they haven't made up any real ground. Both teams remain tantalizingly just out of reach.

That's why the three-game series against New York that begins tonight takes on a little more urgency than a regular late-July series. It represents the Rays' best opportunity in weeks to close the gap that separates them from the top of the division - although the Yankees probably look at this as a chance to restore proper order to the American League East.

By now it should be clear to just about everyone that the Rays will have to do it themselves, if it's going to happen at all. The Red Sox and Yankees just keep winning and the Rays must feel like they're chasing the mechanical rabbit at the dog track.

They were 61/2 games back on April 29 and even though they've played 15 games over .500 since then, they're still 61/2 back in the division - four games behind Boston for the wild card - after Sunday's 5-1 loss at Toronto.

They have 18 games left against the two AL East frontrunners (10 against the Yankees) but just holding serve against them probably won't do. Last year, the Rays needed 97 wins to take the division and Boston had 95 for the wild card. If those numbers hold this season, the Rays would need 41 wins in those last 63 games to get to 95.

Do the math. That's .650 baseball, just for the wild card. And every game they drop to the Red Sox or Yankees is like a double smack upside the head.

Games like the one they played Saturday in Toronto make you believe they could do it. They were behind by eight runs two different times but pulled off the biggest come-from-behind win in club history. And even though they lost Sunday, the Rays did go 6-4 on their 10-day road trip out of the All-Star break. That's encouraging. They had been just 18-26 on the road before the three-city journey began.

We've spent a lot of time focusing on their inconsistent play for much of this season, though, and it's still a problem. Two-fifths of the starting rotation is maddeningly wobbly right now. David Price put them in a deep hole Saturday. Scott Kazmir continues to wander through the pitching wilderness.

The Rays can't win unless that changes. That they're even being mentioned in talks involving front-line starters like Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee tells you executive vice president Andrew Friedman knows that, too.

There is reason for optimism, of course. They score runs in bunches and the bullpen has been generally reliable lately. And if it seems like they've been on the road most of this season, it's because they have been. That's about to change. Starting tonight, 36 of those final 63 games are at the Trop, and the Rays are among the best home teams in baseball.

We go back and forth on these guys. Last year there was a sense that magic was in the air, even at this point in the season. This season has simply been a grind from the start, though. The Rays deserve credit for staying in the race in the face of so much inconsistency, but all that has done is leave them chasing two well-funded teams and it's getting late.

If they're going to make a move, now would be a pretty good time to start.