"The Tampa Bay Rays reached the midpoint of the season Wednesday, playing a game that has been all too familiar during the first half — pretty good pitching, not enough hitting.

The result was a 4-3 loss to the Reds in which the Rays mustered only five hits and wasted a 10-strikeout performance by James Shields, who made one bad pitch and fell two innings shy of throwing his fourth straight complete game.

Naturally, the game was played at Tropicana Field, where the good-pitch, poor-hit theme has taken root.

The loss dropped the Rays' record under the dome to 19-20 as opposed to a major league-best 26-16 on the road.

And yet, after 81 games, they are 45-36 (third best in club history at this point of the season), have the third-best record in the American League and are in third place in the American League East, well within reach of a postseason berth.

"We got a lot of stuff that I think we can definitely do better, but that being said, you can't hate the spot we're in with us thinking we haven't played as well as we could be playing," Evan Longoria said. "We've had stretches where we've been really good, mostly on the road, which still is baffling to a lot of us. It's always good to still feel like you're in contention at the halfway point, still feel like you have a chance to play in September, and we definitely do."

The Manny Ramirez failed drug test/retirement fiasco and the 0-6 and 1-8 start have long been forgotten. What occupies the minds of the Rays these days are the baffling home record and the upcoming stretch of 11 games with the Yankees and Red Sox that come just before and just after the All-Star break.

"I think our goal the next half would be to try and win a bunch of series," Shields said. "I don't think we've won enough series this first half, especially at home. We got to get better at home. There's no doubt about it. I think if we can string together some five, six-game winning streaks this second half, we'll be in business at the end.""