Mike Carlson / AP

Carl Crawford of the Rays hits a grand slam in the seventh inning Thursday against the Cubs. The Rays scored seven runs in the inning en route to an 8-3 victory.

updated 10:27 p.m. ET June 19, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Maybe it’s time to stop calling the Tampa Bay Rays surprising.

Carl Crawford sure thinks so after his second career grand slam, the biggest blow in a seven-run, seventh-inning rally, carried the Rays to an 8-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs and a three-game sweep of the team with baseball’s best record Thursday night.

“We’ve been playing good,” Crawford said. “After winning three games like this, it’s going to be hard to argue that we’re not one of the good teams in the league.”

At 43-29, the Rays have the third-best record in the majors behind the Cubs and Boston Red Sox. They’re 14 games over .500 for the first time in franchise history and have set a club record for victories before the All-Star break.

“It validates what we’ve been doing. It does give us more confidence. There’s no question about that,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said of the sweep. “I don’t know how else I can say it. ... Hopefully it’s going to catapult us even further.”

The Cubs had been the only team in the majors that hadn’t lost more than two games in a row this season. It looked as though it would remain that way when they chased Rays starter James Shields and took a 3-1 lead in the seventh.

But reliever Carlos Marmol (1-2) opened the door for Tampa Bay’s biggest inning of the season by walking the first two batters he faced, then hitting the next two with pitches to force in a run and depart with the bases loaded.

“He’s been extremely reliable. This sort of came out of nowhere,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. “What are you going to do?”

Crawford hit Scott Eyre’s second pitch into the right-field stands, putting Tampa Bay ahead 6-3.

And the Rays weren’t finished. B.J. Upton tripled and scored on Eric Hinske’s double, then Hinske stole third and trotted home on Evan Longoria’s sacrifice fly.

“It’s just been a struggle. We’ve got to piece it together, and we’ve got to keep our heads up and keep going,” said Piniella, whose team returns home Friday for the start of a weekend series against the crosstown rival White Sox.

The Cubs are 3-4 since Alfonso Soriano went on the 15-day disabled list with a broken hand, but remain 3½ games ahead of second-place St. Louis in the NL Central because the Cardinals dropped their third straight to Kansas City on Thursday.

“We haven’t been in a bad spell all year,” Piniella said. “Well, we’re in one right now, and hopefully at home, it will cure it and we go forward.”

Grant Balfour (2-0) pitched 1 2-3 scoreless innings to get the win. It was the Rays’ third sweep of a first-place team. They also took three straight at home from Boston April 25-27 and the Los Angeles Angels May 9-11.

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