As AL East race heats up, Rays need to pick up pace

The Rays remain on the road this week, not the best place to be as the race in the AL East picks up speed.

But maybe Joe Maddon's club picked up some speed itself in Kansas City by refusing to lose even once to the loser Royals.

That's the ticket in any pennant race. Beat the teams you can beat - a lot.

It doesn't matter how you beat them. The Rays struggled at times, but came from behind again and again against the Royals, against whom they're 6-0 this season.

That's how it's done.

Look at what happens when that happens. The Rays picked up two games on the Red Sox in as many days.

The second half has broken well, given how the first half ended, with the Rays turning positives into distinct negatives.

They began a six-game road trip by winning two games, including a victory against Toronto's Roy Halladay - and still turned the trip into a stinker by losing four in a row, including an unceremonious sweep in Texas.

They then began a six-game homestand by winning four in a row, beating Halladay again - only to end it with a distinct odor by dropping two in a row to last-place Oakland.

That isn't how it's done.

Funny, but the Rays went into the All-Star break last season having lost seven in a row.

All of baseball waited to see how their darling Rays would do with the heat turned up.

And then they saw.

Now we wait again.

This time, the Rays are the hunters, not the hunted. They are trying to run down the Red Sox and Yankees, knowing full well that come trade deadline one or both of those goliaths will make a move.

The Rays think they already have what they need to win.

Well, win.

Start by beating who you should beat. That was a staple of the 2008 Rays, who cleaned up on pansies, going 42-16 against teams with a losing record. That's .700 baseball. Throw in a 25-9 record against last-place clubs.

And this year? They're 21-14 against teams with losing records. But against the three last-place teams in the American League - Baltimore, Cleveland and Oakland - the Rays are 10-15. That's just not good enough.

That's why Maddon and his players went out of their way last homestand to talk about "turning it up" and "tightening it up" or being, as Maddon put it, "consistently methodical."

"We are defending American League champions and we have high standards and goals for this year," he said. "... It's time for us to get back to the top of the division."

It will be easier said than done.

But one way to set about doing it is to beat who you should beat and finish what you start. Take this road trip. Good start, but now finish it strong.

Because the Yankees will be at the Trop for three fairly large games beginning Monday.

By the way, the Yankees are at home all this week for last-place Baltimore and Oakland. The Red Sox? They host last-place Baltimore this weekend.

It's that time of year - time for the good teams to beat bad teams and move it on out.

Baseball seasons are like that. You get five games over .500. Then you get to 10 games over .500, as the Rays did for the first time this season while in Kansas City.

Now push it.

Go for 15 games, then 20 games over .500.

It's that time of year - time to be consistently methodical.

That's how a race becomes a race.

It's time for the Rays to pick up the pace.