Do not count out Rays

On Wednesday, the Tampa Bay Rays moved further away from the “Green Monster” and Fenway Park, and gained another step closer at clinching a playoff berth for the first time in franchise history.

The Rays (90-60) beat Boston, winning two of three against their division rivals and the second-place Red Sox to gain a two-game lead in the AL East.

Where are the New York Yankees, a team that’s known for making the postseason, a team that’s known for coming up big during the postseason and a team that’s known for winning a World Series pennant? Let’s not forget that the Yankees are the most historical team in the major leagues, and let’s not forget that the Yankees are 26 time world championships.

Well, now you can forget. This season is about the remarkable Rays, a team that has built around solid pitching, and revenue has also inflated among the fans’ that have come out to the Trop to support their Rays. No, the crowd wasn’t attractive to the Rays at the beginning of the year, but now, the Rays have converted into one of the greatest teams in baseball, and have establish a great group of players.

Surely, no one anticipated the Rays to last long, surely no one expected the Rays to have a two-game edge over the Red Sox late in the season, and surely no one expected their solid pitching and hitting. Everyone, expected the Detroit Tigers to have a successful year after acquire Miguel Cabrera, who needs to find the local salad bar and needs to stay away from the candy bar, and Dontelle Willis, who both were expected to have a big season with the Tigers, in hopes that they would have helped turn things around at the motor city, but Cabrera struggle early in the season, designated hitter Gary Sheffield sustained an early injury and Curtis Grandson was missing in action with an injury.

Everyone even expected the Cleveland Indians to have a great year, after the surprising season that breaking ball specialist, Cliff Lee is having, the 20-game winner seemed to be leading the Indians down the right path, but their offense and pitching struggled and they dealt their ace CC Sabathia to the Milwaukee Brewers, who struggled while pitching for the Indians, but has been solid since arriving to Milwaukee. Starter Fausto Carmona has struggled after winning 19-games last season. Outfielder Grady Sizemore had a quite a descent season and still raced around the bases aggressively, but it was not enough.

Everyone thought the Seattle Mariners were going to contend with the Los Angeles Angels, but the Mariners struggled with injuries and lack of production. During the offseason, the Mariners acquired Erik Bedard from Baltimore. Bedard had the most strikeouts last season, but this season he isn’t nearly close, after sustaining injuries to become the biggest disappointment. Former Mariners manager, McLaren, was fired and the team jettisoned Richie Sexson and Jose Vidro, who both was bust.

It’s time to focus on the Rays, a team that may be dangerous during the postseason. On Wednesday, the Rays became the sixth team in major league history to win 90 games immediately after a stretch of at least 10 consecutive losing seasons. The Rays can clinch the wild-card berth with two wins over the Minnesota Twins, in a three-game series that gets underway on Thursday.

Also, the Rays have never won more than 70 games prior to this season, and they have not had much buzz around cities of St. Petersburg and Tampa Bay, but they certainly are buzzing now after the Rays won big teams in big games, such as Boston, New York Yankees and Angels.

The Rays are the most improved team in baseball and the most dramatic team in baseball history. The Rays were the worst bullpen unit in the last 50 years, but this season they have rejuvenated into one of major-league’s best bullpen. Their bullpen made a massive turnaround after signing veteran closer Troy Percival during the offseason, acquiring Dan Wheeler and Grant Balfour and with the emergence of J.P. Howell, who made his transition from starter to a relivever.

The Rays can set history if they clinch the division or even the wild-card, and they can make history if they win the World Series, however anything is possible when you have a great pitching, and a talented hitting core with Evan Longoria, who being suffering through injuries Carl Crawford, Willy Aybar, who provides them with hits and Carlos Pena, who can come up big in the clutch.

Certainly, the Rays reminds you of the 2005 postseaon when no one expected the Chicago White Sox to win the World Series. They won with good enough hitting, but most of all, they won with strong pitching.