By: TJ Hartnett

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

From 2008 to 2013, the Rays were a consistently good team. They made the playoffs in four of those six years, including a World Series berth against the eventual champs, the Phillies in 2008.

In the three seasons since, it has been a rougher go for Tampa Bay. This year appears like it may shake out no differently. They’re too far back in the division to be anything other than a headache to the Red Sox and Yankees ahead of them, both of which have been holding onto playoffs slots for dear life.

However, that doesn’t mean that Tampa should be written off completely. They are in the hunt for the second wild card spot. They have two teams between them and, at the moment, Minnesota.

They just need to scrap and fight and claw and, of course, win. They also need to stay healthy. Middle of the season injuries to Colby Rasmus and Kevin Kiermaier have crippled the team’s potential in 2017.

They also need to play at least to their base level. Evan Longoria in particular needs to reach a consistent level of production in September for this snowball in hell not to melt.

The second wild card has changed the game so much (for the better), making teams that would be done for the year still competitive this late in the season. Having two wild card spots keeps so many clubs in the hunt and it alone is keeping the Rays’ ambitions alive.

It’s still not an entirely likely scenario; Tampa reaching that wild card game, since they’ll have to leapfrog three teams to get in but it’s not impossible.

Unfortunately, it leaves a lot in the hands of those three clubs. They need to lose while Tampa wins. On the bright side, the Angels are the only team ahead of the Rays that they don’t play in September.

Tampa hosts the Twins starting on Monday as well as playing a road and a home series against Baltimore in the coming weeks.  They’ll have to make strong statements in those 9 games and by that I pretty much mean win ALL of them. Then pray those teams lose some more to others as well.

For the sake of covering all that there is to cover, the Rays also have a road series and a home series against the team currently holding the first wild card spot; the division rival Yankees.

Now this doesn’t mean that they’ve got a shot at getting to that first spot (though mathematically they of course do), but it is another team with a better record that they’ll need to play well against to not dash those playoff dreams.

Basically, they’ve got a lot of sway in their own destiny. Not as much as I’m sure they would like, but with 16 games against teams ahead of them in the standings, the schedule couldn’t do much more for them.

At the end of the day, they are still a long shot for a playoff spot but it’s a position they’ve thrived in before.  Even during that six year run where they were consistently contending, they seemed to constantly either have their back against the wall or just flat out get overlooked. Overlooking this team could spell doom for their opponents.

Tampa is always the underdog and that’s the role they shine in. Their incredible game 162 in 2011, coming back from 7-0 to win in 12 innings stands as a testament to what this team has accomplished with their back against the wall.

That certainly is the case as September baseball gets underway in 2017. So, Tampa, what have you got to show us this year?