Tampa Bay Rays inch closer to Wild Card with win over Texas, Boston loss

August 22, 12:25 AMTampa Bay Rays ExaminerRob Quinn

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Kaz has actually been pretty solid for the Rays of late AP/Mike Carlson

Don’t look now, but Scott Kazmir has won four of his last five starts and the Rays have clawed their way back to within three games of the lead in the race for the American League wild card.

Kaz pitched into the eighth and the Rays got home runs from Ben Zobrist and Carlos Pena in a 5-3 win over the Rangers at the Trop tonight. The Rays also received some good news out of Boston as the New York Jets beat the Patriots 20-11. Sorry, that was Yankees 20, Red Sox 11 at Fenway Park.

The best news of the night for the Rays was the performance of Scott Kazmir. After a disastrous first half of the season, Kaz has now managed to post quality starts in five of his last seven outings and the Rays have a 7-3 record over his last 10 starts. As frustrated as Rays’ fans have been with Kazmir this season, it is time to accept the fact he is an important part of this team and his continued success will go a long way towards the Rays making a return trip to the postseason.

Who earned their way to heaven tonight? Evan Longoria, Ben Zobrist and Carlos Pena all did it with two out hits. The bottom of the fifth proved to be the big inning for the Rays and it all started with two outs and nobody on base when a Longoria singled was followed up by back-to-back homers by Zorilla and Pena. How often have we seen the Rays fail to get the big two-out hits this season? Tonight they came through in a big way in a big game.

One cause for concern from tonight’s game, which has been a continuing problem all season, is the performance of B.J. Upton. For Upton the numbers don’t lie, they absolutely tell the story of how unsettled he has been at the plate this season. He just isn’t producing quality at-bats. When he needs to be aggressive, he takes too many strikes and when he needs to be patient, he becomes suddenly over-aggressive. He just hasn’t found his comfort zone. He still possesses great confidence in himself, but the frustration is starting to take its toll. He knows he’s better than this, which is why he shares in the disappointment that Rays’ fans are feeling about his offensive struggles this season. The telltale statistic is right here:

Upton’s plate appearances per walk by season:

• 2007: 8.43
• 2008: 6.60
• 2009: 10.33

Still, Upton’s speed and defense make him a valuable player and it’s not too late for him to get it going and finish the season on a positive note.

Texas Rangers Examiner Rand Huguely wrote a great piece on how there really is no such thing as "this year’s Rays", but the Rangers are as close as it gets. The Rangers don’t have the prolific record of losing that the Rays brought into the 2008 season, but the similarities still abound. The young talent is there. The manager, Ron Washington, is in his third season with the club as Joe Maddon was with the ’08 Rays. They are also getting better pitching and defense than they’ve seen in recent memory. Nobody predicted the Rangers would ever be near the top of the AL in ERA playing in that ballpark. Look at the recent history of where they finished:

• 2009: 3
• 2008: 14
• 2007: 10
• 2006: 10
• 2005: 12

You don’t make a jump like that without vast improvement from both your starters and bullpen. The Rangers even have a future starting pitching phenom toiling in their bullpen as David Price did, albeit later in the season, for the Rays last year. Texas’ young gun, Neftali Feliz, is downright filthy. The Rays probably want nothing to do with him, but if he does get into a game in this series, Rays fans who have yet to catch this kid on TV should take notice. He’s throwing 100 mph heat and has struck out 17 in 11.1 innings and he’s allowed only one run on a homer by former Ray Adam Kennedy. He’s the real deal and if Texas manages to make the postseason he could very well steal the show as Price did last year and K-Rod did in 2002 with the Angels.

Here are the latest Wild Card standings after a great night for the Rays:

The rest of the series will shake out like this:

Saturday – Matt Garza vs. Tommy Hunter

Sunday – David Price vs. Scott Feldman

Do you see a lot of the ’08 Rays in these Rangers? Let me know in a comment.

Jason Bartlett hits: 125

Jason Bartlett groundball singles between short and third: 25

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Have a great Rays' story idea for me? How does it feel being forced to actually root for the Yankees? Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. E-mail me at raysexaminer@live.com