Coming into Monday's game, the Tampa Bay Rays were riding the wave of a seven-game winning streak to get one of the two last slots for a wild card play-in game. Even though they lost their last two games to the bottom-feeding Toronto Blue Jays, it was some distance from their 4-13 slide prior to September 11, when they were just about fighting for their lives.

The Texas Rangers were similarly struggling just to stay afloat -- they had a good start to September, when a sudden 2-12 stretch threatened to derail their playoff hopes. A burning seven-game win streak, including four against their rivals the Anaheim Angels showed their character and put them in a good position to contend.

The key to Monday's game was the Rays' pitcher, David Price, who had struggled against the Rangers in the 2013 season. He was matched up against the exciting Rangers pitcher, Martin Perez, who, at just 22, brought a lot of surprise to his windup.

Despite Perez's pronouncements that the play-in game was just like any other, he was shocked by a quick Delmon Young flyball to center field that allowed rookie Wil Myers to score from third base. David Price took over for Tampa Bay and struck out Ian Kinsler, Alex Andrus and Elvis Andrus in quick succession.

The game was quiet for the next two innings until Evan Longoria hit a long one to right center field, allowing two home runs. And just like that, it was Tampa Bay 3, Texas 0. Texas answered with a Craig Gentry RBI at the bottom of the third to narrow the gap somewhat.

David Price kept up his stellar play to keep distance from Texas, as Evan Longoria hit another crushing double to left field off Rangers relief pitcher Alexi Ogando. The Rays capitalised on Ogando's miscue by placing David DeJesus on the field for an RBI double that sent Longoria down to the plate. With the Rays up 4-1, Alex Rios, long Price's nemesis, blasted an RBI double to send Elvis Andrus down to the plate from a stolen second base to the cheers of the hometown crowd.

With the game slowly turning the way of the Rangers, Sam Fuld had a base hit that put him in good position for a run. Ben Zobrist, who was 1-3 prior to the 9th inning, then bunted, inviting a fielding mistake by Tanner Scheppers for a Fuld home run.

David Price was clearly the man of the night, playing a complete 118-pitch game to send Tampa Bay into a wild-card game against the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday. Cleveland, which have won 10 straight, are in their first playoff stint since 2007. How Price will keep up his pitching will determine how far the Rays, and Evan Longoria, go.