Rays’ season ends with quiet loss to Rangers
ST. PETERSBURG — Rays players gathered in small groups and different corners of the quiet clubhouse Wednesday evening, some with a beverage in hand, saying goodbyes they didn't expect to be sharing this soon.
“It ended abruptly, it ended way sooner than I think anybody would have planned for it,” veteran second baseman Brandon Lowe said. “I don't know that anybody's got anything lined up . ... Schedule is clear. You always have to plan for the best, never plan for the worst. And, unfortunately, the worst happened.”
The sudden ending, and somber scene, was the result of the Rays being swept out of the best-of-three American League Wild Card Series, the 7-1 loss before another small Tropicana Field gathering of 20,198 completing a Texas two-step after a 4-0 defeat on Tuesday.
“It sucks,” starter Zach Eflin said. “We didn't expect to be out right now. ... I didn't have any offseason plans until the first week of November, second week of November. So it's not a good feeling.”
The team that won 99 games while overcoming a savage string of injuries to key players and the loss of All-Star shortstop Wander Franco due to legal issues couldn't win one against a Rangers team that staggered into the playoffs.
Worse, the Rays looked bad in doing so, shaky in the field, inconsistent on the mound and feeble at the plate. An offense that finished second in the league with a team-record 860 runs was held to one over the two games.
“Yeah, it's tough,” closer Pete Fairbanks said. “But it's hard to win games when we kind of played like we did these past two days. I think that collectively everybody would agree with that. ..
“It's a frustrating way to go out for the year. And I don't think it's necessarily a great recollection of who we were as a team.”
Added Brandon Lowe: “Uncharacteristic Rays baseball.”
That frustration has become somewhat of a familiar feeling, as this is the third straight season the Rays have been knocked out in their first round, ousted last year by Cleveland in the
Wild Card Series and in 2021 by Boston in the Division Series after winning a team-record 100 games.
The Rays also extended their postseason losing streak to seven, matching the Blue Jays for the longest active streak in the majors, and to 4-14 over their last 18 postseason games.
“We’d like to continue playing,” manager Kevin Cash said, “but I can’t put my finger on one specific thing why we’ve been eliminated pretty quickly.”
The Rays just missed going out in record fashion, the run they scored in the seventh ending their postseason scoreless streak at 33 innings, dating back to the one they scored in the sixth inning of Game 1 last year. The record is 34 innings by the Dodgers in 1966/ 74.
“I’m glad we scored the run because if not we’d have been talking about that a lot,” Cash said. “Our bats just didn’t come to life. They pitched really, really well.”
The lack of offense was clearly the primary issue And also raised the biggest question: did the absences of key players finally catch up with the Rays?
“That’s an easy narrative,” Cash said. “We are who we are, and we finished the regular season with the guys that we had. I still feel that we could have had a better showing with the roster that we had.”
Still, in facing tough right-hander Nate Eovaldi on Wednesday, the Rays started a lineup that included right-handers Manuel Margot and rookie Curtis Mead, and light-hitting shortstop Taylor Walls. Under different circumstances, that would have included lefty sluggers Brandon Lowe and Luke Raley, and the switch-hitting Franco.
“It’s hard to look back and think what if, because it’s not anything that could have happened,” Lowe said.
Another issue was the atmosphere. Whether from falling behind, not hitting, drawing the two smallest crowds for major-league postseason games since 1919, or other elements, something was missing.
“I just think an energy was just not there,” Fairbanks said. “At least it didn’t feel like it . ... It just felt like the dugout was kind of dead (Tuesday). I don’t know if that was a byproduct of what exactly ... when you’re playing your biggest games of the year, you would expect the energy a little higher.”
Eflin and Eovaldi matched zeroes for the first three innings, but the Rangers broke through for four runs in the fourth.
Adolis Garcia led off with a homer. And with two outs they added on with a Leody Taveras single, a Josh Jung blooper behind first that became an RBI triple when rightfielder Josh Lowe tried to make a diving catch on and missed, and a two-run homer by rookie No. 9 hitter Evan Carter.
The Rangers took advantage of a Mead error to add a run in the fifth off Eflin, then two more in the sixth off reliever Colin Poche by rapping three doubles. Mead singled in the Rays’ run in their seventh.
“They jumped me from the beginning,” Eflin said. And there wasn’t much the Rays could do. Afterward, Cash thanked the team, noting the adversity they overcame. “It’s a pretty special group,” he said. “Want more for them than maybe what we got.”
Principal owner Stuart Sternberg, baseball operations president Erik Neander and general manager Peter Bendix were among team officials also gathered in the clubhouse, finding what words they could as they all processed the stunning sudden ending.
“We did the best we could, we couldn’t get it done,” said team MVP Yandy Diaz, via interpreter Manny Navarro. “It’s unfortunate. We tried to make all the hits, we couldn’t get any hits. We made a few errors. And that’s what happened.”