ATLANTA -- By the time the Rays get home Thursday night, they could be bound for a trip to the postseason.
Tampa Bay's 7-2 win over the Braves on Wednesday night at Truist Park, combined with losses by the Rangers and Blue Jays earlier in the day, reduced Tampa Bay’s magic number to clinch a playoff spot to two.
The Rays can reduce that number to one by completing a three-game sweep of the Braves on Thursday afternoon. If the Rangers lose to the Mariners again later Thursday afternoon, Tampa Bay will be back in the postseason for the first time since 2023.
But that's not the only scenario for the Rays to punch their ticket to the postseason on Thursday. Tampa Bay could also secure a spot in the playoffs with a win in Thursday's finale and another White Sox defeat Thursday night.
Of course, it all hinges on the Rays taking care of their business first by completing a sweep at Truist Park.
“It’s not at the forefront of my mind. I'm really just taking it one pitch at a time,” said Nick Martinez, who will start the series finale. “Continue to do my job of keeping us in a ballgame to win this ballgame and go from there. I don't want to think too far ahead.”
Martinez said he’s taking a similar approach to the Rays’ spot in the division race, and beating the Braves again kept them four games ahead of the Yankees with 17 left to play. And second baseman Richie Palacios said the Rays won’t let the potential of a celebration, however and wherever it takes place, distract them from the job in front of them.
“That's how we've been doing it all season,” Palacios said. “We're not looking at anything else but what we can do as a team, so we're gonna do that tomorrow -- and we'll be excited for that.”
Still, all the possibilities should make for a rather eventful day after another relatively stress-free romp over the National League East-leading Braves on Wednesday night.
Griffin Jax looked much sharper in his second start back from the injured list, allowing just one run on two hits and a walk over five efficient innings.
“He really did a nice job early on, and his stuff was tremendous throughout the course of the five innings,” manager Kevin Cash said.
Admittedly feeling out of sync in his delivery as he gave up six runs (three earned) while recording only eight outs in a loss to the Mets last Wednesday, his first outing in a month due to right elbow discomfort, Jax seemed a lot more like himself against a dangerous Braves lineup.
He said he felt that way, too.
“Way better, way more composed, way more like myself,” said Jax, who threw first-pitch strikes to 13 of the 18 batters he faced. “Felt it from the beginning, just being able to attack the zone early and often.”
Meanwhile, the Rays continued their recent offensive surge by scoring three runs in the second inning and three more in the fourth against Braves starter Reynaldo López.
They have scored at least six runs in each of their past five games, and they’ve won four of those. They’ve found a variety of ways to score during this stretch, as they have all season, putting up 33 runs with 10 homers and 10 steals in that span.
And this time, it was the bottom half of the lineup that led the charge.
Victor Mesa Jr., who turned 25 on Tuesday, launched his 11th home run of the season to get the Rays on the board in the second. Chandler Simpson and Richie Palacios reached on a single and a walk, respectively, then advanced on a double-steal. That put them both in position to score on a two-out single by former Brave Jorge Mateo.
“That's what we are for,” Mesa said. “When the top [hitters] don't do the crazy stuff that they always do, we gotta put in a little bit more.”
That part of the order came through again in the fourth. Mesa singled, Simpson walked, then Cedric Mullins and Palacios delivered back-to-back RBI singles. Mateo dropped a sacrifice bunt to move the runners, then Yandy Díaz capped the rally with a sacrifice fly.
It was a classic example of what that group does well, especially compared to the big-time power and high-end exit velocity coming from the top of the lineup: contact, speed and constant pressure.
“The guys at the bottom, we grind, get hits, move guys over. We've been doing it all year, so it's really nice to see that,” Palacios said. “Baseball purists definitely love it.”