Kevin Tall
Post-season pitching?; stock photo

They're back to .500. Just two-and-a-half games behind the Yankees.

The Rays (11-11) won back-to-back games Easter weekend to take the series against the Blue Jays 2-1. James Shields culminated the comeback, having hurled his second-straight complete game in a 2-0 win.

This time a four-hit shutout.

Shields shone on an afternoon when the Bay area's legend struck out four times. No hits for the .346 batter.

Fuld was down. Shields was up. Zobrist stepped up.

Big Ben got the Rays on the scoreboard early. He took Ricky Romero deep in the first inning, launching a two-run blast over the left-field wall.

That's what playoff-contending teams do. Teammates come through at the right times. Maybe it's a bit premature to say the Rays are contenders. They have, however, won 10 out of their last 14 games.

This article appears in Apr 21-27, 2011.