subject: Rays beat Orioles Winning a Playoff Spot [print this page] Music screams, champagne flowed and the half empty stadium shook.
Tampa Bay Rays are back in the playoffs, and their complaints about the lack of support from fans have been waiting for.
AL East title is still attainable. So, another trip to the World Series.
"We met a couple of difficult moments on the road, but we found a way," BJ Upton said after the Rays won their ticket to the playoffs the second time in three years with a 5-0 victory over the Orioles on Tuesday night Baltimore.
With 19-game winner David Price offers an impressive pitching on a day he described as a "nightmare" has also got beams going solo from Carl Crawford and Carlos Pena cleared the way for a wild celebration.
Price (19-6) scattered six hits in eight innings and allowed one runner past second. The 25-year-old left-hander struck out eight and walked none in what will probably be his last start in the regular season.
Rays, who made an improbable run to the World Series two years ago, the price comes out of the bullpen to close the standard-bearer sewing their victory in Boston, keeping a half-game advantage on the New York Yankees in the AL East.
Yankees clinched a playoff spot Tuesday night with a 6-1 win over the Blue Jays.
"I've never had any doubt that this was a playoff team," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "I want to make a World Series champion."
Price agonized much of the day in a critical comment he posted on Twitter last night, blasting the low turnout 12,446 in a potential tire that Tampa Bay lost to Baltimore on Monday night.
