My Two Cents: Rays' Rare Win Over American League Foe Counts Double, So Will Sunday

Baseball can be a weird game, especially when you're a team with some nice pieces but plenty of flaws. That's an apt — and sadly accurate — description of the Tampa Bay Rays so far this season.

They can look great for a while, like last week when they won five straight on the road against two really good National League teams in the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres, and then flat-out stink this week, getting swept by the Kansas City Royals and only scoring three runs in three days, and then getting shut out for the fifth time in two weeks on Friday night when they opened a series in New York.

That's why Saturday was so big for the Rays. That ugly four-game losing streak had to end, and it did, with Tampa Bay scoring twice in the eighth inning to grab a 3-2 win over the Yankees, who are leading the American League East right now.

Beating the Yankees — especially in New York — really matters because it basically counts double when you're chasing down the division leader. The Rays were five games out entering the day, and now they're four. Had they lost, it would have been six. It's a legit two-game swing.

The same baseball math applies on Sunday, too. The Rays (15-18) and Yankees (19-14) meet again, and here's what's at stake — the Rays will come home either three games back, or five. It's another two-game swing with the 1:35 p.m. ET game.

The Rays won Saturday thanks to a game-tying hit by Curtis Mead in the eighth, and then won it when Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe booted what looked like a double play ball. Pete Fairbanks closed it out in the ninth, and the Rays had the win.

It was only their fourth win in 18 games against an American League team. Yes, you read that right. They are 4-14 so far against AL foes. They are only surviving because they've won all five series against National League teams in interleague play. Their 11-4 interleague mark against Colorado, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Arizona and San Diego is the best in the AL and tied for the MLB mark with the San Francisco Giants.

Now for the bad news. Their 4-14 record against AL teams is the worst in the league. We joke all the time about leaving out the Chicago White Sox in rankings because they set a baseball record last year by losing 121 games.

But we can't leave them out right now. Their AL record so far is 8-22, a .267 winning percentage. The Rays, at 4-14, have a .222 mark.

That's sad — and pathetic.

That's why winning a tight low-scoring game with a late rally really mattered on Saturday. It was just a week ago when I wrote a column that Rays fans would be surprised that they led the league in hitting with runners in scoring position at .289. People were stunned.

Well, that didn't last long. During this dreadful week, they are 5-for-42 with runners in scoring position. That's a .119 batting average, far and away the worst in the majors.

They haven't been winning close games because they couldn't get a hit when it mattered. They did. that Saturday.

“We’ve played a lot of games like this lately and didn’t have anything good to feel about after the game,” Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash told reporters after the game. “Right now, they should be pretty excited. Just because of the frustrations that had begun to mount, and that’s going to happen.

"Early in the season when everything is magnified, your stats aren’t there and we're not scoring runs, so it gets talked about. And for good reason. But to get a win today, hopefully that will alleviate some of it.”

Which brings us to Sunday. We know all about the American League East, and how competitive it is. It's always that way. Despite getting outspent regularly, the Rays know how to win in this division. This year, it's the Yankees who are the early leaders, with everyone else lined up behind them. The Boston Red Sox are two back, Toronto is three behind, the Rays four and Baltimore is 5.5 games back.

The Yankees, though, are not perfect. As the Rays well know, they've been unbeatable when Max Fried pitched. He's beaten them twice in a week, and they are 7-0 in their starts.

They are 12-14 otherwise. 12-14! That's a losing record.

The Yankees are without Gerrit Cole and Luis Gil, two very important pieces of their starting rotation. Fried has been perfect — they Yankees have outscored opponents 55-20 in his seven starts — and Carlos Rodon has been good. The other starters? They all have ERAs over 5.00. All of them.

So there are days when the Yankees are beatable. That includes Sunday, when Taj Bradley takes on Will Warren. Warren is 1-1 with a 5.63 ERA and has 12 walks in 24 innings.

And even if you're not good at math, you can figure out the basic premise. This counts for double. Play well Sunday and it's a Rays win. And a Yankees loss.

That's how it works.