It was a happy bunch of Tampa Bay Rays that jetted to Toronto late Thursday night, each dressed in their Ed Hardy T-shirts purchased by Cliff Floyd and Scott Kazmir, and each relaxing just a little bit easier in the plush seats of the Delta charter flight.
The Rays finally won in three tries this September, beating the New York Yankees 7-5 in a game that wasn't as close as the final score would indicate.
Jason Hammel surrendered all five runs in the ninth inning, three on an opposite-field home run by Derek Jeter and the last on a mammoth blast off the C-Ring catwalk in left field by Alex Rodriguez.
No replay needed on that homer.
No resuscitation needed for these Rays, either.
"To get the win going up (to Toronto) definitely makes a difference," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "To lose three in a row would not have been fun at all."
The Rays, who started a stretch of 19 games against contending teams Tuesday, begin a nine-game, three-city road trip tonight in Toronto that includes stops in Boston and New York.
"It's huge," Kazmir said. "I think that just kind of stopping it there and pulling this last game off kind of gives us a little more confidence, because if we had three straight right there, we would have gone into the road trip still confident, but at the same time like 'OK, we got to get back on track.' Now we've already done that, and we feel like we can just go on from there."
With Boston off, the Rays, who have the best record in baseball, were able to add a half-game to their lead. They now lead the second-place Red Sox by 3½ games and trimmed their magic number for winning the American League East to 21.
It also dropped the third-place Yankees 11 games back in the AL East standings.
"They pick up three games or they pick up one game based on that game," Maddon said. "It's good to keep them in our rearview mirror."
The Rays avoided their first sweep since the All-Star break by doing what they've done all season - they pitched well, the played good defense, and they put up some runs.
Kazmir threw six innings of one-hit ball, and the opportunities that eluded the Rays during their losses in the first two games of this series landed safely on the field turf or in the right-field stands, which is where Willy Aybar's solo home run in the fourth inning finally came to rest.
The Rays sent 10 batters to the plate in the second inning, scoring five times to give Kazmir a level of comfort.
"Kazmir has been tough on us all year," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.
The lefty allowed one hit - a leadoff double by Cody Ransom in the fifth inning. The ball fell just in front of Gabe Gross' glove as the right fielder slid to make the catch.
Kazmir did walk five, but he struck out seven and kept the Yankees bats quiet, something Matt Garza and Edwin Jackson couldn't do during the first two games of the series.
"Kaz was very good," Maddon said. "He did a very nice job."
Kazmir extended his scoreless streak at the Trop to 11 1/3 innings. He was pulled after throwing 98 pitches through the first six innings.
"It always feels good when you have a lead, especially early," Kazmir said. "You feel a little more comfortable out there. You feel like you can attack the strike zone more."
And with Kazmir leading the way, the Rays won a game they needed to win with the long trip ahead.
"You know it was just huge for us to get this win right now because it kind of felt like that last game (Wednesday) kind of hurt us a little bit," Kazmir said. "We played a little sloppy I guess you could say, and to come out and take care of business (Thursday), it was huge for us to go into the road trip."
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