Rays sweep Blue Jays to keep long-shot playoff chances alive

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The odds are still incredibly high, and the amount of help needed immense.

By beating the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 Sunday to complete a series sweep and a 5-1 final regular-season homestand, the Tampa Bay Rays are doing their part to stay on the fringe of the playoff race heading into their final two series at Detroit (starting Tuesday) and at Boston.

“We’re alive,” manager Kevin Cash said. “It’s better than not being so. We’re going to go play a (Tigers) team now that has gotten as hot as any team, certainly in the American League. So we’ve got our hands full. But we’ve got a chance.”

At 78-78 — their 33rd time this season at the .500 mark — the Rays obviously don’t have much margin for error, or losses. They are four games behind the Royals and Tigers, who are tied for the American League’s second and third wild-card spots, with at least the Twins and Mariners between them (the Twins and Red Sox were still playing their doubleheader Sunday).

“The entire team, the entire clubhouse, is together,” said Jonathan Aranda, who homered for a third straight game, via team communications director Elvis Martinez. “It’s not easy, but it’s not impossible mathematically to make the playoffs, We’re going to go out there and try to win every game left.”

It may very well take a 6-0 run, and even that may not be enough.

But given all the games the Rays let get away, all the veteran players they traded in July, all the frustrating moments that arose during a season defined mostly by disappointment and mediocrity, they go into the final week with a chance they didn’t seem likely to have.

“Definitely not the year that anybody wanted or anybody had hoped for,” said veteran Brandon Lowe. “But to be at this point in the season, to have a great homestand, to go out on the road and play against a team that’s been playing incredible baseball as well, it does a lot to still be playing for something.

“There’s still that opportunity. The door is still open. And there’s not one person in this clubhouse that has packed it in. I think everybody wants to keep winning and wants to see if we can make it there. ... (And) the postseason is the postseason. If you make it there, who knows what happens?”

Sunday’s game was reflective of their recent play, with strong starting pitching from Shane Baz, a handful of key plays in the field, just enough scoring and dominant bullpen work.

“Everybody played a role,” Cash said.

Baz continued his impressive run in his return from September 2022 Tommy John elbow surgery and other injuries. He worked six innings, allowing four hits (his most since mid-August) and one run, a good outcome from a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fourth. In 13 starts, he is 3-3, 3.07.

“I feel like I made the big pitches when I had to,” Baz said.

The Rays erased the 1-0 deficit in the sixth when Aranda hit a two-out, two-run shot in the sixth, the fifth homer in his last 11 games.

“He’s certainly on a hot streak right now,” Cash said. “But the best thing is that every day he’s building confidence knowing that he belongs up here. And he’s contributed in big ways.”

After the Jays tied it in the seventh when Colin Poche made a bit of a mess, the Rays went right back ahead on a pinch-hit double by Yandy Diaz, a Jose Caballero single and a sacrifice liner to left by Christopher Morel.

The Jays threatened again in the eighth with two two-out singles, but Hunter Bigge came in to strike out Davis Schneider for arguably the biggest out of the afternoon.

Lowe, named the team MVP in a pre-game ceremony, hit his 20th homer in the eighth to make it 4-2. That was important also as Edwin Uceta, their fifth reliever, allowed a walk, two hits and a run in the ninth, then got the final outs.

“I feel like we’re playing great baseball. We’re not beating ourselves much. ...” Baz said. “It feels good to win, sweep a series and just carry it into the next one.”

Wherever that may lead.

____