When Carl Crawford dove full out Friday night to catch a line drive in the gap, ESPN baseball analyst Buster Olney predicted it would be one of the Top 10 highlights of the season.

He is right, of course. But we’ve come to expect the spectacular out of Crawford and it’s altogether fitting. He has suffered as much as anyone with the Rays’ legacy of losing and he is enjoying the ride now more than anyone.

His 3-run homer Sunday helped the Rays beat the Angels and complete a series sweep, which pushed the Rays 5 games over .500.

Crawford is hitting .289 after this weekend (which certainly is fine) with a .318 OBP, but that OBP will likely end up .350 or better based his last two seasons; it rose 20 points this weekend alone. His OBP for May is .362.

His batting average also has room to rise another 15-20 points, since he has been over .300 the last three seasons.

Crawford does more than that, though. He stole two bases Sunday and helped put pressure on the Angels from the outset. You know his defensive range in the outfield. After the Rays’ sweep of Boston at the Trop a couple of weeks ago, Boston Globe baseball writer Amalie Benjamin referred to him as “ridiculously good.”

A lot of things have to come together for any team to be contender, but there needs to be a catalyst, too. Crawford could be that guy for the Rays. If he gets a whiff of a playoff race after all these years of losing, who knows what level his game might rise to. It would be fun to watch, though.