Rays go down without a fight

The end came quietly, and as such was in sharp contrast to what the Rays had experienced since they left Florida half a month earlier.

From the very beginning of their 5-1 loss to the Blue Jays on Sunday, said B.J. Upton, "there wasn't really much going on," but that was about the first time during the trip that could be said.

The curtain-closing defeat meant the Rays had secured six wins in a testing 10-day grind from Kansas City to Chicago to Toronto - a trip that was even longer for the many Rays who hit the road a few days earlier by heading to St. Louis for the All-Star Game festivities.

"It's felt like a month," said Evan Longoria, who like most of the group felt mostly but not completely satisfied with the work the Rays did on their long stretch away from Tropicana Field.

Not much of a fight was put up in the finale, as rookie left-hander Brett Cecil kept the Rays in his back pocket all afternoon in warding off a series sweep for the visitors. But conventional baseball wisdom holds that finishing better than break-even on any road trip is something to be cherished.

The degree of difficulty involved in most of the games along the way only accentuated that feeling as the Rays packed their bags Sunday afternoon.

"With all the close games and coming out of the All-Star break with a 10-day road trip," said Upton, "I think things easily could have gone bad, and they didn't."

Mark Buehrle's perfect game Thursday in Chicago and Sunday's setback were the only contests on the trip with a final margin of more than two runs. That gap Sunday could be attributed mostly to Jeff Neimann's hanging slider which Scott Rolen wacked into the left-field seats for a three-run homer in the fourth inning, marring an otherwise solid showing by the maturing starter.

"We needed to come out and get on them early and we could not do that; their pitcher didn't permit it," said Manager Joe Maddon. "But I did like the way Jeff went about his business. I really was very pleased with his pitching today."

It was a performance that was tough to categorize, much like those 10 games coming out of the All-Star break. Should the Rays lament missed opportunities or be thankful that the majority of the 50-50 toss-ups seemed to fall in their favor?

The one ongoing frustration was that they again proved unable to pick up any ground against the division foes they're chasing. So as miraculous as some of the events they perpetrated and witnessed on this trip might have been, they're just going to have to find a way to kick it up another notch or two.

"We had some tight games there we probably could have squeaked out, but we didn't, and probably won a few maybe we shouldn't have," said Pat Burrell. "We've just got to be more consistent."