The Rays need an historic stretch to keep their playoff hopes alive

The Tampa Bay Rays are the team that just doesn’t quit.

After starting the year at with an abysmal record for 4-13, they quietly made their way to the .500 mark and just kinda hung at that level for a couple of months. It was an adequate result for a rebuilding year... but the Rays weren’t done!

At the trade deadline, the Rays once again shocked the baseball world. Not by trading away one of their franchise stars — although, they did do that — but by acquiring outfielder Tommy Pham from the St Louis Cardinals.

In typical Rays fashion, Pham was immediately injured; however, since his return, the Rays are the best team in baseball.

Starting on August 19th, the Rays have compiled a record of 20-5, the best mark in baseball since that date.

Unfortunately, the teams they are chasing, haven’t faltered, playing solidly enough for the Rays to be 7 games back with 14 games left in the regular season.

The Rays cannot afford to lose another game and will basically have to go through a stretch of 39 games and winning 34 of them to make up a seven game gap in the standings.

How unlikely is that?

A record of 34-5 has been done only twice since baseball expanded in 1998, where both occurrences came last season (Cleveland Indians and Los Angeles Dodgers). Can lightning strike three times?

It’s also possible for the Rays to settle the score with the Yankees when they come to town next week, but TB will need the Bombers to begin dropping games to Boston and Baltimore this week for the Yanks to be close enough in the standings, and for the Athletics to fall behind.

When you look for a miracle in baseball, you to look to the Tampa Bay Rays.

The playoff odds sit a 0.1%.