Rays limited to one run in WC loss: 'Energy was just not there'

ST. PETERSBURG -- As he sat in front of a crowd of reporters on the club level at Tropicana Field, the Rays’ season officially over, Kevin Cash could only find some comfort in the RBI single Curtis Mead slapped to left field off Nathan Eovaldi in the seventh inning Wednesday afternoon.

“I'm glad we scored a run,” Cash said, “because if not, we'd have been talking about that a lot.”

That run was the only thing that kept the Rays from making ignominious Major League history in their 7-1 loss to the Rangers in Game 2 of the American League Wild Card Series. When Josh Lowe crossed the plate for their only run in this series, it snapped Tampa Bay’s 33-inning scoreless streak in the postseason, a skid dating back to the first game of last year’s Wild Card Series in Cleveland.

Between Jose Siri’s sixth-inning solo homer in Game 1 last year and Mead’s RBI single on Wednesday, the Rays scuffled through the second-longest postseason scoring drought in AL/NL history, behind only a 34-inning streak by the Dodgers from 1966-74.

As was the case with everything surrounding the Rays’ abrupt end to the season, it was hard to find a reason for Tampa Bay’s complete lack of offense in the two-game sweep.

“Look, our bats just didn’t come to life,” Cash said. “They pitched really, really well.”

During the regular season, the Rays' lineup presented a challenging combination of bat-to-ball skills, on-base ability, power and speed. They hit .260/.331/.445 with a .776 OPS that ranked fourth in the Majors and scored more runs than everyone but the Braves, Dodgers and Rangers.

But that performance was nowhere to be found the last two days. They went a combined 14-for-65 (.215) against Texas, with only two extra-base hits (both doubles) and 18 strikeouts compared to just one walk.

“I guess if you would tell us that over two games, we'd only score one run, then I feel like everybody in here would be surprised,” shortstop Taylor Walls said. “But that's a good ballclub over there. Take nothing away from them. They pitched well.”

The 2020 Reds are the only team to be shut out in a postseason series of at least two games, having been blanked by the Braves in their National League Wild Card Series. Only four clubs have been limited to just one run in a playoff series of at least two games: the Rangers twice (1998-99 ALDS), the Cubs ('20 NL Wild Card Series), the Blue Jays ('23 WC Series) and the Rays each of the last two seasons.

Walking through the dugout on his way to the bullpen in the middle innings, reliever Pete Fairbanks noted something simply felt off with the Rays.

“I just think an energy was just not there, at least it didn't feel like,” Fairbanks said. “It just felt like the dugout was kind of dead yesterday. And I don't know if that was a byproduct of what exactly, but … when you're playing your biggest games of the year, you would expect the energy to be a little higher. … I don't think it's necessarily a great recollection of who we were as a team.”

It would be fair to wonder if the Rays were pressing, putting too much pressure on themselves given the importance of the situation and their well-documented offensive issues in the postseason. But leadoff man Yandy Díaz said that wasn’t the case.

“Not too much pressure,” Díaz said through interpreter Manny Navarro. “We’ve been doing this for five years, but I guess the results just didn’t happen like we wanted to, and we lost.”

It would also be fair to point to personnel as an issue. The Rays’ season ended with Mead in the batter’s box, taking a called third strike from José Leclerc for the final out, with Junior Caminero on deck. Mead had 24 games (and 92 plate appearances) of Major League experience before this series, while Caminero began the season in High-A and bypassed Triple-A entirely to debut on Sept. 23.

Mead started the game at second base, where slugging left-handed hitter Brandon Lowe would have been if not for a right patella fracture that ended his season. And Caminero had entered the game to pinch-hit for Walls, who became the everyday shortstop (when healthy) after All-Star Wander Franco was placed on indefinite administrative leave while under an MLB investigation in August.

With their season suddenly over, the Rays can only hope their young players’ growing pains in this series might benefit them down the road.

“They got some reps in a pretty intense environment, playoff baseball, and that is impactful. I'd like to think that we and some of those young players would all be better for it moving forward,” Cash said. “It stings a little bit right now, but hopefully they can revisit some of those thoughts and the mindset they had and make adjustments as needed.”