Tony DeMarco

If you still needed another set of indicators as to which way the American League playoff race is heading, it came on Wednesday.

From Tampa to Arlington to Chicago to Seattle, the signs clearly were presented once again — staying on the same somewhat surprising path they have been on all season. All you have to do is believe:

The Tampa Bay Rays have been the season’s unexpected success story from the beginning. Even their ever-optimistic manager said during spring training that anything above .500 would be a great accomplishment. Yet they have exceeded that in a 1969 Mets sort of way by staying ahead of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees in the AL East.

All along, there has been a feeling that at some point, there would be an awakening — maybe even a rude one. Admit it, you’ve thought of the scenarios; everyone has: A fall from first place, maybe they get the wildcard, maybe they don’t, an enormously successful season nonetheless.

But since the All-Star break, which the Rays entered on a seven-game losing streak to fall out of first place, they have gone 13-6 to push their division lead to three games. Only the Los Angeles Angels have a better record in the AL.

No Rays win this season was any bigger than Wednesday. Facing a 7-4 deficit to the Indians in the bottom of the ninth, the Rays offense went double, RBI double, two-run game-tying homer, infield hit, walk and walk-off three-run homer by Carlos Pena for the quickest six runs you’ve ever seen and a 10-7 victory.

Afterward, when asked if he could explain what’s going on this season under the Trop dome, where they Rays have the league’s best home record, Pena said, “Absolutely not. I’m not going to waste my energy trying to explain this. It’s awesome.’’

And this with Carl Crawford and Jason Bartlett nursing injuries, and B.J. Upton benched due to lackadaisical play. But the Rays’ combination of deep starting pitching (thanks to the emergences of Andy Sonnanstine and Matt Garza), a dramatically improved bullpen and defense continues to offset a mostly lackluster offense.

And it is the Yankees who find themselves desperately trying to keep pace, fighting losing battles in both the AL East and wildcard chases. They have had worse days in their long and storied history, but Wednesday has to rank up there somewhere.

On the same day Bobby Murcer was eulogized in Oklahoma, Joba Chamberlain landed on the disabled list with shoulder tendonitis and Ivan Rodriguez suffered a bruised knee in a nasty home-plate collision in a loss at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

How much Chamberlain will pitch down the stretch remains to be seen, and his loss for any amount of time is critical for a Chein-Ming Wang-less rotation that already includes Sidney Ponson and Dan Giese. Ian Kennedy will get the first call, and Phil Hughes is expected back soon, but it’s no wonder Yankees’ scouts were among the many there for Freddy Garcia’s recent audition.

Despite ultra-conservative pitch counts, Joba rules and kid gloves’ handling, there has been a history of nagging injury since Chamberlain’s days at the University of Nebraska, and the latest incident couldn’t have come at a worse time for an aging team with a long injury list (definitely not a coincidence).

There now is more pressure on an offense that isn’t equipped to handle it without Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada, who incidentally, had basically the same injury as Chamberlain, and opted for season-ending surgery after missing a month.

After losing two of three in Texas and eight of 11, the Yankees continue on a 10-game trip to face the Angels (who they are 13-23 against in their last 36 meetings) and the Twins. They also have to endure another 10-game trip in early September that includes six more games on the west coast, plus a one-day stay for a makeup game in Detroit, and will play 28 of their final 44 away from Yankee Stadium. The prospects of extra home games in October for the 14th consecutive season are dim.

With the Red Sox dealing with the negative affects on their offense due to Manny Ramirez’s departure, there is another possible playoff scenario emerging — the wild card coming from the Central. That’s because neither the Chicago White Sox nor the Minnesota Twins are showing signs of faltering.

The White Sox dealt the death blow to the wildly disappointing Detroit Tigers by taking two out of three at US Cellular Field, and their bullpen remains among the league’s top three. The Twins overcame bad bullpen beats on consecutive games to win in Seattle on Wednesday, and unlike any other AL contender, have added a potential rotation ace for the stretch run.

That would be Francisco Liriano — remember him? — who threw six shutout innings in his first start after an extended minor-league stay. He doesn’t have the same velocity he did when he exploded on the scene in 2006 during the Twins’ incredible late-season push to the playoffs. But Liriano showed familiar dominance — the kind that will help a young rotation continue to compensate for Johan Santana’s departure.

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