Don’t look now, but very soon the Tampa Bay Rays could be leading the American league East. In fact, it could be in just a few hours.

The Rays won their fifth straight game on Monday while the division leading (for now) Boston Red Sox lost once again. The Rays throttled the New York Yankees by a score of 7-1. That means Tampa is now only a half game out of first. And yes, we are only a quarter of the way through the season but I don’t think anyone expected the Rays to even be sniffing .500 right now. And here they are knocking on the door for first place.

Apparently dropping the “Devil” part from their name has helped a lot. Perhaps not having the red, horned man on their team has proved lucky for them or maybe just getting the weight of an extra few letters off their jerseys has made them faster. Whatever the reason, the Rays are playing great baseball.

In all honesty, a lot of credit has to go to this young ball club and Boston better take them seriously. If the Rays win tonight and Boston loses then the Rays would be alone in first place.

And the New York Yankees would continue to struggle. The Yankees have kinda flown undere the radar so far this season. But at some point there under .500 ball has to be noticed. And the bad thing for them is that they really don’t have the pitching to be all that much better.

But the good news for the Yanks is that they’re without two of their best players - Jorge Posada and Alex Rodriguez - and when they get those guys back they can make a run.

But if the Rays keep playing great baseball even a run by the Yankees might not be enough. Of course, the Red Sox will be able to keep in contact with the Rays and that will allow Boston to catch and pass them by sometime this summer. At least that’s what I think will happen. But then again, I never thought the Rays would be playing like their playing and sitting on the verge of first place in the AL East.