Toronto Blue Jays at Tampa Bay Rays

Whether it’s lingering jetlag from their perfect West Coast trip, running into a couple of American League East rivals desperately trying to play their way back into the postseason race or simply one of those stretches every team goes through, nothing is coming easily for the Rays right now. Their 7-6 victory against the Blue Jays on Wednesday night at Tropicana Field was no exception. They benefited from some fortunate bounces, bunted their way to two runs and watched a comfortable lead turn into their 18th one-run win of the season. As manager Kevin Cash put it afterward, every win lately has been “quite the grind.” But after dropping four of their first five games on this homestand, it certainly beat the alternative. “Every one counts, right?” starter Drew Rasmussen said. “I'm sure we're getting close to people starting to look at standings … but if we win, it doesn't matter. We put ourselves in that position. “When we take care of business on our end, it's a good day -- and that's all that matters.” Here are three takeaways from the AL-leading Rays’ 76th win of the season. **1\. They took what they were given, then took more** Even good teams need good luck sometimes, right? The Rays got some in the fourth inning, courtesy of Toronto left fielder Jesús Sánchez. They did their part by rallying to load the bases with one out, then Richie Palacios hit a fly ball to shallow left field. Sánchez completely misread it and let the ball drop in front of him, allowing two runs to score. But good teams also make their own luck, right? The Rays did that in the fourth inning. With Cedric Mullins on third and Palacios at second, Taylor Walls dropped a sacrifice bunt. Kazuma Okamoto fielded it and flipped it to the plate, but Mullins slid home safely. Chandler Simpson immediately dropped another bunt and raced to first, beating the throw and driving in Palacios. “Guys with speed on base there, just trying to get the ball down, play a little small ball and get the runners in,” Simpson said. The back-to-back bunts, which Cash described as “pretty perfect,” set up Walls to score on a groundout by Junior Caminero, capping a five-run frame that proved to be the difference in the game. “It’s just the inning that kind of encapsulates what we've been for the entire season,” DH Yandy Díaz, who set the tone with a two-run homer in the first, said through interpreter Kevin Vera. “It's the singles. It's the small ball. It's the big base hits. It's just who we are since the start