Tampa Bay Keeps Winning 2-1 Games, and That Is the Whole Story
Tampa Bay won 2-1 behind Drew Rasmussen's seven scoreless innings and eight strikeouts.
A 2-1 win is not a highlight. Winning enough of them is a division lead.
Rasmussen, and the pattern
Drew Rasmussen went seven scoreless with eight strikeouts against Seattle. Tampa Bay scored twice and that was sufficient, which is the sentence that describes most of this Rays season. Consistent starting pitching is what has separated them, and it separates teams in a specific way: it lowers the number of runs the offense has to produce to make a win likely, and it does that every fifth day rather than occasionally.
Where that leaves the division
The Rays sit at 69-46, a .600 winning percentage, 4.5 games clear of the Yankees, with Boston within five of the lead. Three teams, five games, seven weeks.
A lead this size in August is comfortable in the sense that it survives a bad week, and uncomfortable in the sense that it does not survive two.