ST. PETERSBURG — By the eighth inning Saturday night, the Rays were a bit in disarray, which is to say somewhat normal these days.
They were trailing the Blue Jays, they already had gone through four pitchers and their bench had been emptied. A starting outfielder, Desmond Jennings, was in the trainers' room dealing with the latest injury. A starting pitcher, Jake Odorizzi, was in cleats as the next man in.
And from this, they rallied, again, and won, again, beating the Blue Jays 4-2 for their fourth straight and moving into a tie for first place in the AL East at 10-8.
"We've done it a few times now, and it's impressive each time,'' third baseman Evan Longoria said. "There are guys in the lineup, top to bottom, that are coming through with big hits and really just never giving up. That's the thing that sticks out to me, is no matter what the score is, guys are going up there like it's a tie game and competing.''
If there's a common theme, it has been unusual contributions from players in unexpected places, with rookie Tim Beckham on Saturday delivering the biggest of four straight two-out hits.
"They're making us coaches look a lot smarter than we are, I know that,'' manager Kevin Cash said. "It seems like every time somebody's been asked to come off (the bench), they do impact us in a positive way. They've been tremendous.''
Consider Saturday, before a spirited Trop crowd of 19,772, as they trailed 2-1 with two outs in the eighth.
Longoria, logging his fifth career four-hit game, blooped a single to right.
David DeJesus, inserted into leftfield unexpectedly at the top of the inning when Jennings' left knee "flared up,'' had to go to the plate for a tough left-on-left matchup against Brett Cecil. All DeJesus did in his first appearance against a lefty this year was roll a single through the hole vacated by a shift for his first hit off one since May 26. "It was one of those where I knew we didn't have any other guys,'' DeJesus said. "It was just a big at-bat to keep it going.''
The Jays switched to hard-throwing righty Miguel Castro, and Cash sent up James Loney, who was supposed to have the day off after homering Friday in his return from the disabled list. He swung at the first pitch and doubled to right, scoring Longoria with the tying run. "Good timing,'' Loney said.
That brought up Beckham, the rookie who'd had a tough day at DH, striking out twice looking and popping out. He got to 3-and-0, got a green light and got hold of a fastball, lacing it off the top of the leftfield fence. "I was just hoping I got a chance to get another at-bat,'' he said.
And to think all that came after something else unexpected, a solid four-inning start by Erasmo Ramirez, whose improved command of his changeup and slider kept hitters from sitting on his fastball.
Though Ramirez hadn't given the Rays much reason to believe since his March 31 acquisition from Seattle with two rough outings and a clean one-inning appearance, at least some team officials kept their faith and decided to give him another start.
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Explore all your options"Two bad (outings) are not good for a new guy on a new team,'' Ramirez said. "I know. I got that. I was worried about that. But at the same time I knew it wasn't a big problem, just throw more strikes.''
Given all the injuries and all the issues, the Rays feel good about where they are. "When we start getting healthy, we start feeling better,'' DeJesus said. "We feel we're in a good spot right now. We're staying above the water. And we're playing well and winning games late.''
Contact Marc Topkin at mtopkin@tampabay.com.