As seasons progress, there are often unexpected teams that find themselves cloaked in an air of invincibility. In the last two years, the Rockies and Tigers both took on that kind of feel late in the season and made World Series runs that no one was predicting in April. It's not quite September yet, but the more time that passes, the more I'm starting to think that the Rays are that team this year. On August 23rd, they've got a 4.5 game lead on the Red Sox and that lead only seems to be growing as injuries pile up for the Rays. Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria have both missed significant time and the Rays failed to acquire a needed bat at the trade deadline, instead electing to go with Rocco Baldelli. Given all of Baldelli's injuries and his mitochondrial disorder, that seemed like a poor choice. Early returns indicate that it wasn't.
After a slow start, Baldelli launched his first homer since May 3rd of last year (this is actually the most recent picture of him in the Getty Image database) last night. He went 2-for-4 on the night and scored twice, rewarding Joe Maddon's decision to put him in the cleanup spot. He's only got 22 plate appearences since his return so it's way too soon to judge, but the fact that the possibility even exists that he might be productive is a pretty good summary of how well things have fallen into place this year.
