Kevin Cash and the Tampa Bay Rays had themselves another great regular season, winning 99 games and barely missing out on the American League East crown.
For Tampa Bay, the hope was that postseason struggles of the past would come to an end in the American League Wild Card Playoffs against the Texas Rangers.
After all, Tampa Bay was set to host the entire series and seemed to have the upper-hand.
About that?
The Rays fell 4-0 in Game 1 on Tuesday and were facing elimination inside Tropicana on Wednesday. It did not go swimmingly for Cash and Co. Tampa Bay fell down 4-0 after four following homers from Adolis Garcia and Evan Carter.
It was 7-0 after six before the Rays scored their sole run of the series via a Curtis Mead single. By virtue of scoring this run, the Rays avoided postseason futility. They finished one out shy of tying the 1966-1974 Dodgers for the most consecutive postseason innings (34) without a run.
In last season’s wild card sweep at the hands of the Cleveland Guardians, Tampa Bay was shutout 1-0 in 15 innings in Game 2. It also scored just one run in the opener. That’s a total of two runs for the Rays in 42 innings over the past two postseasons.
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Tampa Bay Rays postseason futility continues
On one hand, a team that’s been in the bottom-10 in payroll in each season over the past decade making five consecutive playoff appearances is nothing to sneeze at.
On the other hand, Tampa Bay’s playoff failures are now part of the narrative in Florida. After losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2020 World Series following the COVID-shortened season, the Rays have not made it out of the American League Divisional Series. It’s an issue.
This season was particularly disappointing in that Tampa started the regualar season with an absurd 13-game winning streak while going 27-6 in its first 33 games. Unfortunately, season-ending injuries to starters Jeffrey Springs, Drew Rasmussen and Shane McClanahan put a damper on things.
The off-field issues and ensuing absence of star shortstop Wander Franco was also a major backdrop for the final couple months of the season.
For a team with a small payroll, overcoming this for a fifth consecutive playoff appearance was no small accomplishment.
“Teams have adversity over six months,” Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash said ahead of the playoffs. “That’s inevitable. We are fortunate that we have a solid group of people inside the clubhouse. Players and staff have done a tremendous job of keeping the vibe.”
That’s all fine and dandy. But the futility we saw on display in front of a few dozen fans (hyperbole) inside the Trop over the past two days isn’t going to cut it.
This will also lead to major questions surrounding the small-market team heading into the offseason.