The Tampa Bay Rays, who finished the regular season with 99 wins and the top spot in the American League Wild Card standings, have been eliminated from the first round of the 2023 Major League Baseball postseason. The Rays were “swept” in a two-game American League Wild Card Series against the Texas Rangers.캡틴토토
Tampa Bay fell to Texas, 1-7, in Game 2 of the American League Wild Card Series of the 2023 Major League Baseball postseason at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Friday (May 5). After an 0-3 loss the day before, they dropped game two and were eliminated.
For the second straight day, the bats went silent. After going scoreless on six hits the day before, the team had eight hits in the game but only one run scored. Only Isaac Paredes, batting fifth and playing third base, had a multi-hit game, going 2-for-4. He was powerless at the plate, striking out a whopping 11 times, ending his fall baseball season prematurely.
Starting pitcher Zach Eflin was tagged for five runs (four earned) on eight hits, two home runs and two walks in five innings. He gave up four runs in the fourth inning and one more in the fifth to fall behind 5-0. Reliever Colin Fauchet, who came on in the sixth, couldn’t keep up with the Texas bats either. He gave up two runs on three hits in one inning, and the score was 0-7. The Rays scored one run in the bottom of the seventh, but it wasn’t enough to put the game away.
With the loss, Tampa Bay became the first of 12 teams to be eliminated from the 2023 Major League Baseball postseason. The Rays went 99-63 for a .611 winning percentage in the regular season, but finished second in the American League East behind the 101-61 Baltimore Orioles. They earned the first wild-card spot and hosted the wild-card series at home, but were swept by second-place Texas.
Texas made up for missing out on the American League West title by winning the Wild Card Series. The Astros tied the Houston Astros for first place with 90 wins and 72 losses in the regular season, but slipped into the wild-card series due to a poor head-to-head record. They led the division with one game to go, but lost the final game to lose the division title. However, they rebounded with two straight wins away from home in the Wild Card Series to advance to the American League Division Series. They will face the American League’s best winning percentage (.623) team, Baltimore, for a spot in the Championship Series.