Fun facts to ponder:

THE RAYS are 77-49 heading into Friday night’s game at Chicago. With 36 games remaining, playing .500 ball the rest of the way will get them 18 more wins - or 95 for the season. To win 100, they’ll need 23 wins, a .638 percentage.

IF THE RAYS win 95, the Yankees would need to finish 28-7 (as of Friday) - a .750 pace - to tie the Rays. The bigger threat, of course, comes from Minnesota and Boston. Both are 4 1/2 games behind the Rays’ pace. It’s basically five teams for four spots right now in the American League - the Rays, Angels, Red Sox, White Sox and Twins.

WHO SAYS you have to mash the ball to win? Their top hitter (batting average): pitcher Andy Sonnanstine (.400). The departed Mike DiFelice is hitting .300. That’s another way of saying, the Rays don’t have a .300 hitter. However, they do have a good number of high on-base percentage hitters. B.J. Upton, for instance, has walked 82 times and has an OBP of .379. They have eight players with .333 or better OBPs.

LOOKING AHEAD to September, the Rays have a stretch of nine consecutive games against the Red Sox or Yankees starting Sept. 8 in Boston. They follow that with four against the Twins on the final home stand of the season. Clearly, if they get into the playoffs they will have more than earned their way.

COST EFFECTIVE The Yankees have a payroll this season of $209,081,577 (according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts web site), which means their 67 wins heading into Friday had cost them $3,120,620. The Rays payroll is $43,745,597, so their 77 wins have cost them $568,124.