Friday, September 13. Game 149. Fireworks display comes at a good time.

Rays 11, Angels 4

Record:  88-61

Attendance:  39,914.  Angel Stadium

Off Friday night's 11-4 fireworks, there isn't anything wrong with the 88-61 Rays.  Of course they have to keep it up one game at a time, but with 13 games to go there is a good chance they will win seven more for a 95-win season.  It is still hard to imagine it will take more than that to make the playoffs--but it is still a possibility.

In Friday night's game against the Angels, the Rays were behind 1-0 going into the third inning, when they got three homers, from Willy Adames (18), Austin Meadows (31), and Jesus Aguilar (11)--4-1 Rays.  The teams traded two-run innings to put the score at 6-3, but Rays hitting added five runs over the last four innings and Rays pitching stiffened, allowing only one more run over the last six innings.

The Rays run in the top of the ninth was started by newcomer Johnny Davis, who slapped a ball into the left-field corner.  The speedster was standing on third by the time the ball got back into the infield.  He came in with the last run of the game on a sac fly by Jesus Aguilar.  When he got back to the dugout, it erupted with smiles, slaps, high fives, and hugs.  This was 29-year-old Davis's first at-bat and first hit in the major leagues.  Celebration all around.

There was cause for celebration too because Charlie Morton got the win, and is now 15-6 on the year.  He extended his own personal records by reaching 182.1 innings and 223 strikeouts.  Morton went six innings (94 pitches) and gave up a home run to Kole Calhoun in the third.  In the eighth, Calhoun hit another HR off Andrew Kittredge, who pitched the seventh and eighth.  Jalen Beeks mopped it up with a clean ninth.

The Rays slept better than they had in the previous two nights, but they've got another game tonight against the Angels.  Tyler Glasnow is scheduled to be the starter tonight, so the hope is that he will go deeper than his two-inning outing last time.  There are no guarantees with Glasnow considering how much time he has missed, but a good performance would make the remaining games a little less daunting.  One game at a time.