"All season long, a common refrain for the Rays was that if Carlos Peña and B.J. Upton could get going at the same time, Tampa Bay's erratic offense would become dynamic.

At the brink of elimination during the last two days, it finally happened.

Peña, after hitting .196 during the regular season, and Upton, after hitting .237, combined for six RBIs on Saturday and Sunday. With 6-3 and 5-2 road victories against the Rangers, the Rays have forced a deciding fifth game in the ALDS.

"It speaks to their attitude and the fact they like big games," Rays manager Joe Maddon said of why his two most mercurial players have suddenly gotten hot.

"When you talk to either B.J. or Carlos prior to a game like today, it's a very calm conversation. … They like these moments."

As their season numbers suggest, Peña and Upton didn't hit at the same time very often this season. There was even one month — May — in which both hit below .180.

The only month in which both players hit over .240 was April, when Upton batted .262 and Peña .247.

But in back-to-back elimination games at Rangers Ballpark, the two combined for seven hits, three doubles, a triple, a home run, four runs and more than half of their team's RBIs.

"It's very encouraging," Rays hitting coach Derek Shelton said. "If we were going to have to wait (for simultaneous production), I think now is the time we wanted to wait for."

"When those two guys are going," Carl Crawford said, "we're a different offensive team."

Upton had one of the biggest hits in Game 3, an RBI double that tied the game at 1 after a base running miscalculation by Matt Joyce threatened to sabotage a scoring opportunity. Before that, the Rays had scored only one run in the series.

Upton carried his momentum into Sunday, hitting a two-out RBI double in the fourth inning to give the Rays a 3-0 lead and help take a crowd of 49,218 out of the game.

Upton came up with two outs and Peña at second after starting pitcher Tommy Hunter had struck out Joyce and Dan Johnson. When Hunter fell behind 3-0, Upton took an aggressive approach and fouled off a fastball."