"We just discovered another admirable trait about veteran Tampa Bay Rays designated hitter Johnny Damon. In addition to his leadership, hustle, classiness and clutch play, the man knows how to speak the truth.

In Monday's Tampa Tribune, Damon was quoted by Anwar S. Richardson as saying, "I'm OK saying this. We have to start thinking about the wild card because Boston is the best team out there."

OK, so Damon didn't really say anything we didn't already know about the plight of the Rays. Even after Sunday's 5-0 win at Kansas City, the Rays are 9½ games behind the Red Sox in the American League East and another 6½ behind the New York Yankees for the wild card.

I'm sure Rays manager Joe Maddon, the most optimistic man on the planet, spit up a gulp of merlot when he heard what Damon said, but Damon was actually being kind. Forget catching the Red Sox. A couple of more hiccups like they had over the weekend at Kansas City and the Rays will be out of this thing completely - if they aren't already.

The excellent website coolstandiangs.com gives the Rays about a 5 percent chance of making the playoffs right now.

They actually are much closer to fourth place than they are second, and they have just 62 games to make up that gap on the Yankees. Even if they can do that, it presumes they could beat out the Los Angeles Angels for the wild card or even hold off Toronto for third."