Rays enjoy taste of 'playoff atmosphere'

HOUSTON -- The Rays have already clinched everything they can. They first locked up a spot in the postseason, then they won their second straight American League East title, then on Wednesday they secured home-field advantage through the AL Championship Series. Their top priority for the next week is to stay healthy and get ready for the postseason.

If nothing else, the series they just completed at Minute Maid Park and the one they’re about to play at Yankee Stadium will help them get ready for the competition and crowds they’ll see the rest of October.

• Box score

The Rays dropped two of three against the Astros this week, including a 3-2 defeat in Thursday night’s series finale, as Houston punched its postseason ticket and clinched the AL West title. The Rays’ final regular-season stop is The Bronx, where they’ll face a Yankees team that has a two-game lead in the AL Wild Card standings entering Friday.

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“That was a playoff atmosphere for all three games,” second baseman Brandon Lowe said. “I think they have a great fanbase here, great showing every time that we've been here. Honestly it was really nice to, I feel like, get accustomed to it.

“The place was really loud at times, especially on some plays that we had to have some good communication on, stuff like that. So it was great to get that under our belt, especially for some of our younger guys, some of our rookies, and they handled it great. I think we got a little bit of a test, and I think we're all set.”

• Games remaining: 3 vs. Yankees
• Standings update: Clinched first place in the AL East last Saturday
• Home-field advantage: Clinched for AL Division Series and AL Championship Series on Wednesday

There are more tests ahead, starting this weekend. The Yankees will be eager to nail down their spot in the postseason field and, ideally, gain home-field advantage for the AL Wild Card Game on Tuesday. And they know as well as the Rays that, if they advance that far, the AL East rivals will meet again in the AL Division Series.

“I think we've got a lot of guys that are going to benefit from the experience. At the end of the day, we very well could be seeing the Yankees in four or five days after that,” manager Kevin Cash said Thursday afternoon. “So you want to make the most of it, and anytime you go into an environment like that, they've got great fans, they're supportive, and it's coming down to the wire. So [I] expect that it should be a fun three days.”

The Rays have held the upper hand in the season series against the Yankees so far, winning nine of their first 16 matchups while outscoring them, 82-44. Left-hander Shane McClanahan, who will start Friday night’s opener against lefty Nestor Cortes, said Tampa Bay isn’t approaching this weekend any differently due to what’s on the line for New York.

“To be honest with you, I don't really think we've thought about that. We've kind of just approached it as any other game,” McClanahan said. “Just go in there and do what we do, and that's play our baseball.”

For the most part, the Rays did that here. They lost by one run Tuesday, when JT Chargois walked in the tying and winning runs in the ninth inning, then enjoyed a dominant all-around performance in a 7-0 victory Wednesday to clinch the AL’s top seed.

Right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. kept the Rays off the bases for the first three innings Thursday night, with Lowe breaking up the perfect game by drawing a leadoff walk in the fourth. Lowe also hit his 36th homer of the season to break up McCullers’ shutout in the sixth.

The Rays couldn’t be too upset with the way they pitched Thursday night, either. Left-hander Ryan Yarbrough, who took the mound after opener Collin McHugh, allowed a single and a walk in the fourth inning before Carlos Correa blasted an 0-1 cutter deep to left field for his 25th home run of the season. That was enough for the Astros’ pitching staff, as they held on and celebrated their fourth AL West title in five years.

If they meet again this year, it’ll be a rematch in the ALCS.

“I thought we pitched really, really well to them, so [I'm] encouraged by that,” Cash said. “I would bet that, if we see them again, we’ve got a lot of work to do before that. But they probably learned some things, we hopefully took some things on our end, and we'll probably both be happy if we are facing each other.”

Wisler returns
Reliever Matt Wisler, who had faced just one batter since Aug. 15 due to right middle finger inflammation, returned from the 10-day injured list on Thursday and pitched a scoreless eighth inning. The right-hander allowed a single to Yordan Alvarez but retired the other three hitters he faced, using his slider on 10 of 11 pitches.

“Very encouraged. Wasn't totally sure what it was going to look like, how he was going to feel,” Cash said. “He said he felt really good, no issues, so that's just a huge sign for us.”

Before the game, Wisler said he has managed the issue by throwing sliders only in games or on his days off. Spinning breaking balls too often seems to cause the soreness, but Wisler believes he can aid his recovery by staying on top of his treatment and taking advantage of potential off-days built into the postseason schedule, if he makes the Rays’ ALDS roster.

"That's why it's always been so frustrating these last couple weeks, too, because I'm trying to get back, and I know my time's running short. I need to get back by this week to try to have a chance to pitch,” Wisler said. “I'm excited for it with a team that has a really good chance of going deep in these playoffs. It's really exciting, and I'd like to be a part of it as much as possible.”