Kevin Cash believes. Honestly, he believes.
One hot week, he said. A couple of hits here. A couple of pitches there. Just like that, and his Tampa Bay Rays can get back in the race.
Chris Archer has faith. Really, he does.
A win over Minnesota today. A nice series against Baltimore coming up. Just you watch, the Rays can get right back in this thing.
The only thing? Isn’t it time?
If the Rays are going to cling to their chances of getting an American League wild-card berth, then don’t they have to end their three-game losing streak? Don’t they have to stop leaving the bases loaded, which they did in three straight innings Wednesday night? Don’t they have to stop wasting 12-strikeout pitching performances, which they managed to do in a 5-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins?
Instead, it is the Twins who have won six straight and have moved into the prime position for the second wild-card berth. The Twins got a nice night from Tyler Duffey and three hits from Joe Mauer to lead the victory.
The Rays? They had outfielders (Daniel Nava and Kevin Kiermaier) running into each other, a pitcher (Archer) flopping on the grass trying to field a bunt and a catcher (Rene Rivera) popping up with the bases loaded and no one out. That kind of effort will not win.
“I think we look at these last two games as opportunity where we were in ballgames, and a couple of hits here or there or a couple of pitches made, we could have been on the opposite end of the outcome,” said Cash. “We can’t keep saying that. I think everyone knows that. Sometimes, you have to make your own situation. It’s probably time we started doing that.”
The thing is, there are a lot of teams in the race for the Rays to climb over, and odds are that one of them will be the team that gets hot instead. If the Rays cannot win with Archer on the mound, what hope is there.
Archer, however, says he still believes.
“Totally,” he said. “Three games can be made up quickly. Consider the teams that are in it, considering we play the Twins tomorrow. The Rangers are playing the Blue Jays right now. We’re going to Baltimore in a couple of days. The opposition is right there for us. We just have to continue to play good baseball, not make mistakes and it will be there for us.”
Besides the Twins, the Rays have to catch the Rangers, Angels and Orioles.
For the time being, however, they seem to be moving in the wrong direction.
Drew Smyly can change that for Tampa Bay when he faces the Twins today.
