The Rays have spent most of the season leaning on pitching that looks built for October. The missing piece was always the same: could the lineup give that staff enough help when the games tighten up?
Sunday’s 14-4 win over the Houston Astros at Tropicana Field offered a loud answer.
Tampa Bay closed out the sweep with 15 hits, four home runs and a box score that kept rolling from top to bottom. Every hitter in the starting lineup reached base with at least one hit, and the damage came from far more than the usual names.
Junior Caminero did not drive in a run, and that may have been the most encouraging sign of all.
That is not a slight on Caminero. For much of the year, the Rays’ offense has run heavily through him, Yandy Díaz and Jonathan Aranda.
When that group delivered, Tampa Bay usually had a path to scoring. When it didn’t, the lineup could go quiet fast, and the summer slump was the clearest example.
This version of the Rays looks different.
Victor Mesa Jr., Chandler Simpson and Nick Fortes combined for six RBIs on Sunday, while Richie Palacios added three more. Aranda also put together a big day of his own, launching two home runs and driving in three runs. In all, Tampa Bay piled up 14 runs without needing its best hitter to carry the load.
That kind of balance is exactly what the Rays have been searching for.
The offense has been getting more reliable over the last few weeks, and now it feels like production can come from just about anywhere in the order. That matters even more with October approaching, because the pitching has already been there. Multiple starters have made the MLB All-Star Game, and the staff has long looked capable of winning in the postseason.
The real question was whether the bats could keep up.
With 13 games left in the regular season, that concern looks a lot smaller than it did a few weeks ago. If Tampa Bay keeps getting this kind of length from the lineup, from the top all the way through the bottom, it becomes a very difficult team to slow down.
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