TAMPA -- As they surged back into the American League Wild Card race with a seven-game winning streak , the Rays did an admirable job of keeping their focus on the here and now. Looking too far ahead would do them no good, they said, and worrying about other teams’ results wouldn’t help, either.

“It's all right in front of us. We play a bunch of teams here that are in the hunt, and at the end of the day, we control what happens,” right fielder Josh Lowe said Sunday morning. “We’ve got to win the games.”

But Cleveland has made things tough for Tampa Bay lately, and the road ahead won’t be much easier. The Rays lost to the Guardians, 2-1 , on Sunday afternoon at George M. Steinbrenner Field, losing the four-game series and falling back below .500 at 71-72.

The Rays have won 10 of th

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