The Tampa Bay Rays can be forgiven for suffering from whiplash. Fresh off their AL East victory over the New York Yankees and boasting the best regular season record in the major leagues, they now find themselves on the verge of going home to stay, on the brink of elimination from the AL playoffs virtually overnight.

The past two days have seen them undergo a passing by the Texas Rangers, a team from a division far worse than the AL East. The Rangers coasted to the division win, while the Tampa Bay Rays had to fight till the last week of the season. Not that they were in danger of missing the playoffs – they would have led the Wild Card if they had missed the championship. No doubt, Joe Madden is wondering whether he should have given his starters some rest over the last week of the season instead of fighting to the finish with the Yankees.

The latest collapse, a 6-0 embarrassing defeat, featured mediocre pitching by James Shields into the fifth, when he gave up a three-run homer to Michael Young, just after a questionable call on what would have been strike three. Their bats were unable to dig them out of the hole. They had no answers for the arm of C. J. Wilson, who was energized by the performances of Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay and pitched a gem through six and a third.

The Rangers realize they’re not done yet, but they find themselves in an enviable position as the series heads to Texas. The Rays will have a better pitching matchup with Matt Garza on the mound against Colby Lewis, but unless they can find a way to score some runs and pull off an unlikely comeback, their 2010 postseason may be very short indeed.

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