On Sunday at Coors Field, the Rays got off to another early lead, scoring thrice off Jhoulys Chacin in the first inning on a James Loney RBI single, a wild pitch, and a Kelly Johnson RBI single. But then Alex Cobb looked like he might be the next pitcher to blow an early lead on the way to a crushing defeat. Michael Cuddyer made it 3-1 with a solo homer in the 2nd, and then Troy Tulowitzki made it 3-2 with another home run in the 4th. But in the 6th, the Rays offense went right at Chacin and the Rockies again, scoring three more times on another RBI single by Johnson and a 2-run double by Ryan Roberts. Nolan Arenado ended Cobb’s afternoon with a third home run with 2 outs in the 6th, but the Rays bullpen was lockdown in relief of him, with Jake McGee striking out Carlos Gonzalez to end the 7th before Joel Peralta and Jamey Wright tossed shutout ball in the 8th and 9th, with Wright striking out the side in a perfect inning to finish off the Rays’ 8-3 win.

Cobb went 6.2 innings allowing 3 runs on 8 hits, striking out 6 while walking 1. He made three big mistakes, but his command was solid overall as he got 10 outs on the ground and he lit up the strike zone, throwing 71 of 107 pitches for strikes. This is what Alex Cobb can do–he’s not some ace like David Price or Matt Moore and he’s not going to dominate every time out, but he can eat innings and keep the Rays in games on a consistent basis, and that makes him a very valuable pitcher.

Ben Zobrist was out of the Rays lineup after leaving the team because of the death of his grandmother. Evan Longoria also went 0 for 4 with a walk. Usually those two being non-entities is a recipe for disaster for this Rays offense, but not this time around. James Loney raised his average to an unbelievable .398 as he went 3 for 5 with an RBI and 3 runs scored, Kelly Johnson and Ryan Roberts each went 2 for 4 with 2 RBI, and Desmond Jennings had 2 hits while Jose Lobaton had 2 RBI. Overall, the Rays went 5 for 10 with runners in scoring position, stranding just 4 runners on base all game. Despite the fact that the Rockies out-homered them 3-0, the Rays found a way to push runs across and refused to let a game that seemed very losable the way they have been playing slip away again.

The Rays hope to take the momentum from their series win versus the Rockies back with them as they head to Tropicana Field to take on the Toronto Blue Jays. Jeremy Hellickson takes on Mark Buehrle in the opener at 7:10 PM on Monday night to start a 4-game series with Toronto and a 10-game homestand. The Rays hope that by the end of that stretch, their season outlook will be completely different than it has been lately.

If you asked anyone about the player who is the biggest key to the Rays’ success year-in, year-out, almost everyone will give you the same answer: Evan Longoria. When Longoria is healthy, everything changes for the Rays, with their lineup looking more dynamic and their defense emerging as one of the best in baseball. When he is sidelined, however, suddenly the Rays can’t score runs and their defense falls apart, and at the end of the day, they are are a .500 team at best. There’s a catch, though: Longoria isn’t going to miss the entire season, so all the Rays have to do when he’s not in the lineup is remain afloat until he comes back. After what happened in 2012, the Rays saw that they needed a player like Ryan Roberts to do just that. It was going to be a drop off from Longoria to anyone else, but it was downright embarrassing as they cycled through Drew Sutton, Brooks Conrad, Wil Rhymes and others trying to replace him, turning the third base position into an absolute black hole. In Ryan Roberts, they had a player with the ability to be better than that.

Roberts himself didn’t play that great in 2012, managing just a .235/.396/.360 line (78 OPS+) with 19 doubles, 12 homers, and 10 stolen bases in 489 plate appearances between the Diamondbacks and Rays. But as recently as 2011, Roberts had managed a .249/.341/.427 line (108 OPS+) with 19 home runs and 18 stolen bases in 555 plate appearances, proving that he had the ability to be not a franchise player, but at least a rock-solid one who can contribute to a winning team. And even if 2011 was going to be an isolated breakout for Roberts, he was a player who had hit lefties extremely well for his career, managing a .263/.343/.445 line in 542 plate appearances, and the fact that he had actually hit righties better than lefties was a fluke and a clear place where Roberts could improve. And there was another area where Roberts had proven himself much better than the replacement-level players the Rays had used in 2012: his defense. In 1694 career innings at third base, Roberts has a 5.7 UZR (4.5 UZR/150), and in 1167 innings at second base, he has been even better, managing a 10.1 UZR (12.5 UZR/150). Roberts could never be a Longoria-type player, but between his hitting, especially against lefties, his ability to swipe some bases, and his very good defense, he was a player who could still be a big part of the Rays’ roster.

It’s clear that Roberts was a big improvement depth-wise behind Longoria compared to the Rays’ previous options. But if they had Roberts, why did they conduct their offseason the way they did, signing James Loney and Kelly Johnson? Roberts became a player essentially confined to playing against lefty pitching and when Longoria needed a day off while players making less money than him got much more playing time. The answer to that is twofold: just because the Rays started the year managing their team that way didn’t mean that would persist the entire year, and Roberts wasn’t just depth for Longoria but Loney and Johnson as well. The Rays began the year with a certain plan, but the bottom line was going to be that whoever gave them the most production was going to be the one that saw the most playing time. Roberts worked his way into the lineup and has impressed enough to stay there so far. And in terms of Loney and Johnson, the Rays knew when they signed him that they carried significant risk. Both were coming off poor seasons, and they needed to have depth behind them in case they collapsed. Roberts was just that. Especially in the case of Johnson, if he lives up to his potential this season, he will be a better player than Roberts. But having Roberts as a security blanket was something that gave the Rays the opportunity to make these high-risk, high-reward moves for players like Johnson, Loney, and Yunel Escobar, and that insurance was something that was worth a few extra million dollars even for a team like the Rays.

Why did the Rays keep Ryan Roberts? They had a variety of reasons, all of them sound. He was due for a rebound at the plate after a tough 2012, played great defense, and most importantly, was an excellent depth piece who could contribute quite well should one of their starting players. They did not expect Roberts to work his way into their lineup on an everyday basis and run away with their second base job, and the chances are that he won’t. But at the same time, keeping Roberts was another upside move himself, only one with much less risk. He was an insurance policy first and foremost but still a player with talent of his own and the ability to make an impact for the Rays even if everyone stayed healthy and played well enough. We have to commend the Rays for not letting a somewhat-inflated salary figure by their standards stop them from making a move just as good as their other upside plays and maybe even better.

Sabathia had struck out Desmond Jennings to begin the game and got ahead 0-2 on Ryan Roberts. But then he hanged a slider and Roberts didn’t miss it, drilling a solo home run. The Rays were far from done. After Evan Longoria lined a two-out single, Sean Rodriguez laced a liner to right that got past Bernnan Boesch for an RBI triple. Then Sabathia left a first-pitch fastball middle-out to Yunel Escobar and Escobar slammed an impressive opposite-field home run to right-center to make it 4-0 Rays. Sabathia was far from his usual ace form early on, missing up in the zone and out over the plate, and the Rays had him on the ropes. They couldn’t finish the job, but the damage was done. Another solo home run by Roberts was all the Rays could get off Sabathia the rest of the game as he went 7 innings allowing 5 runs on 7 hits, striking out 8 while walking 2. You have to give Sabathia credit for battling and saving the Yankees’ bullpen, but the Rays got him early on and that was all they needed with Matt Moore dealing.

After four starts this season, Matt Moore is 4-0 with a 1.04 ERA. Unbelievable. Just looking at the numbers, it seems like Moore is becoming an ace before our very eyes. But in this game, he showed that even as he dominates on the whole, he has plenty more to work on. Moore fell behind hitters and had bouts of wildness where it seemed like he was about to come apart. But Moore more than kept it together on his way to another excellent outing, going 8 innings allowing just 1 run on 2 hits, striking out 9 while walking 3. A Robinson Cano homer in the 4th was his only real blemish. Moore labored, tossing 117 pitches, but the Yankees couldn’t dream of hitting him and could only hope that he beat himself. Instead, Moore allowed multiple baserunners in just one inning as he made up for every lapse of focus by going right back to giving hitters fits and gave the Rays the type of outing they believe could become a more common occurrence as he continues his development. Watching Moore deliver an outing like this and realizing that he can be even better has to send a chill down opposing teams’ spines.

The Rays sending Moore and David Price back-to-back simply isn’t fair, but that’s exactly what they’ll do as Price heads to hill on Tuesday against Phil Hughes. The Rays improved to 9-10 on the season with their win tonight, and they will look to head to .500 and beyond having won 5 of their last 6 games and showing no signs of slowing down.