The Tampa Bay Rays’ playoff hopes remain on life support despite winning two of three against the Athletics. The Rays are 4-5 on the current road trip and will wrap up the two-week road trip against the San Francisco Giants this weekend.
What a fall from grace it has been for the Rays. Two months ago, the Rays were the hottest team in baseball and were in a playoff position. Then came July. The Rays were 7-18 in July, the worst month of baseball in the Kevin Cash era since he became the Rays manager. August has not been much kinder to the Rays. Tampa has gone 5-8; its playoff hopes are on life support.
The Rays are currently 59-63. They are fourth in the American League East and out of the wildcard race by 7.5 games. The Rays have 40 games left in the season and would need to go 25-15 the rest of the season, starting with a win in San Francisco on Friday night, even to have a chance to sniff the playoffs. This would give the Rays an 84-78 record and realistically put them in the mix for a wildcard berth.
The Rays must leapfrog the LA Angels, Kansas City Royals, Cleveland Guardians, Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox, and the New York Yankees to accomplish this. This scenario would require the teams in front of the Rays to have an epic collapse and the Rays to go on a hot streak like we witnessed in May and June. This scenario is highly unlikely.
After the Giants series this weekend, the Rays will play 27 of those 40 games against teams in the playoff hunt.
What led to the Rays’ collapse and their missing the playoffs for the second consecutive season? This is the first season in recent memory in which the front office moves did not go the Rays’ way, as we have seen in the past.
Shortstop Ha Seung Kim was injured for over half of the season and did not play. When he has played, he has been just a shell of the offensive player he was with San Diego. He is hitting .209 on the season.
After trading Zack Littell and Taj Bradley, the Rays acquired pitcher Adrian Houser from the White Sox. Houser has struggled in his first couple of starts with the Rays, going 0-2 with a 7.59 ERA.
Relief pitcher Bryan Baker has been awful during his tenure in Tampa. His ERA is 6.94, and Rays fans are gnashing their teeth when he is called upon in a high-leverage situation.
Since his return from the DL, Josh Lowe has struggled to be consistent as an everyday player.
Edwin Uceta and Mason Montgomery, two stalwarts of the Rays’ bullpen the last two seasons, have been major disappointments this season. Montgomery is 1-2 with a 5.06 ERA, while Uceta has pitched better lately after a horrific start to the season. Uceta is 7-2 with a 4.28 ERA.
Unable to put it all together, Bradley was a letdown for this Rays team, which was finally counting on him to develop into a consistent everyday starter. That never happened, and he was traded to Minnesota at the trade deadline. Bradley finished the season with the Rays with a 6-6 record and a 4.61 ERA.
Shane McClanahan will not pitch this season, which means he will have missed the last two seasons. The lack of a true number one starter has kept the Rays from reaching expectations in the previous two seasons.
Kevin Kelly, a reliable bullpen pitcher in the past, imploded this summer and was sent to Durham with a 0-3 record and a 5.93 ERA.
Right now, it appears that the Rays were just fool’s gold. Now that the shine has faded, we are seeing all the flaws of this Rays team. The Rays’ bullpen, offense, and inconsistent pitching have all let the team down at one point this season. They cannot masquerade any longer. We thought the Rays were going to play October baseball. We were fooled into thinking that this team could contend. Instead, they were just pretenders all season long.
What this team lacks is consistency. Consistency in starting pitching, relief pitching, and the offense. Until the Rays play consistent baseball, this team will continue to struggle to match the play of those Rays playoff teams from yesteryear.