TORONTO — The Tampa Bay Rays checked in for a weekend series with the Toronto Blue Jays primed to party, holding firm control of their post-season fate, needing only a couple of wins to secure a wild card berth.
Two losses later, including Saturday’s decisive 7-2 shellacking, and all of a sudden they need the of help others, tied at 90-71 with the Texas Rangers, who were 7-4 winners over the Los Angeles Angels, both of them a game behind the 91-70 Cleveland Indians, who beat the Minnesota Twins 5-1.
Tense times for one of baseball’s loosest groups, as suddenly they can’t beat a lineup with Jose Reyes, Adam Lind and Brett Lawrie augmented by the triple-A Buffalo Bisons.
Collapse anyone?
“This is it,” said Rays manager Joe Maddon. “Resiliency squared to infinity.”
Give the Blue Jays full credit for playing the Rays tough, capitalizing on a strong outing from R.A. Dickey and three Tampa Bay errors in a 6-3 victory Friday night, before riding 7.1 very good innings from J.A. Happ and two-run homers from rookies Ryan Goins and Kevin Pillar in the decisive fifth.
The Rays, who started the day with 27 different scenarios to settle their season but are now down to six possible outcomes, look to all-star Matt Moore on Sunday against Todd Redmond, the St. Petersburg, Fla., native who can make a whole lot of people unhappy in his hometown.
“That’s fine, I’m OK with that,” said Redmond, whose family held season tickets to the Rays as he grew up. “I’m going to treat it like every other start, it’s the last game of the year and we have a chance to win a game. That’s how I’m going to treat it. …
“We have a chance to knock them out, that’s baseball, and hopefully we can pull it off.”
The Blue Jays had toyed with giving Darren Oliver the start as a parting gift, but instead will use him out of the bullpen at some point in the contest. The 42-year-old left-hander had hoped to pitch in games of such importance when he put off retirement during the off-season, but as a contender, not a spoiler.
None of that concerns the Rays, who arrived in Toronto on a seven-game win streak but have appeared tight, from Gold Glove third baseman Evan Longoria making two errors Friday, to overpowering starter Chris Archer looking antsy on the mound Saturday in his second shortest start of the season.
The usually calm and collected Maddon also seemed to be overmanaging, even by his standards, using six relievers behind Jeremy Hellickson in the series opener and then four more after Archer.
While this is no time for the Rays to be saving their bullets, a manager’s pursuit of optimal matchups so early in contests can be viewed as either apt urgency at a pivotal time, or panic in a big moment, depending on your viewpoint.
“We could not have had better matchups according to what we like to do regarding the pitcher and the hitter in both those moments,” Maddon said of the fifth. “That’s one of those anomaly things that occur.”
Archer, whose fastball average of 94.9 m.p.h. leads all American League starters with a minimum of 20 outings, was pulled after Adam Lind’s two-run single with one out in the third tied the game 1-1.
Alex Torres snuffed out that rally, but Maddon’s itchy trigger finger backfired in the fourth, when Jamey Wright replaced Torres with two on and two out, walked Brett Lawrie to load the bases and they surrendered a go-ahead two-run single to Lind.
“Archie was struggling a bit, I didn’t see a real comfortable moment there,” Maddon said. “They had all those lefties coming up and I liked Alex there.”
Wright also coughed up the Goins homer in the fifth, while Brandon Gomes served up Pillar’s shot.
It was game over from there, setting up an intriguing No. 162 for three teams fighting for two playoff spots.
“It’s a big game, a big opportunity,” said Moore. “We’re in a fine situation as long as we win … we’ve got to take care of (Sunday) before we can worry about the next day.”
Yu Darvish is slated to start for the Rangers in their season finale against Jason Vargas and the Angels, while the Indians have Ubaldo Jimenez on tap for the Twins and Scott Diamond of Guelph, Ont.
The Indians are assured at minimum of playing in a three-way tiebreaker, which would take place if they lost Sunday combined with victories by Tampa Bay and Texas. A win and they clinch home-field advantage in Wednesday’s wild-card game.
The Rays and Rangers could find themselves in a tiebreaker if they both win or both lose their finales.
“The only scenario is whatever helps us win (Sunday), that’s the only scenario that matters,” said Maddon. “You just react to everything else. I mean that. I’m not worried about that, we win that game (Sunday), they’ll tell us where we’re going next. We’ll get a good bottle and go.”
It’s the type of situation the Blue Jays planned to be in at the beginning of the season. Instead, they’re going home, and would love to take the Rays with them.
