Tampa Bay Rays fans rage as team meets their anti-climactic end in AL wild-card sweep: “Most pathetic franchise in the MLB”

Tampa Bay Rays fans are fuming after their team’s anti-climactic end to the 2023 season, a two-game sweep at the hands of the Texas Rangers in the AL wild-card round. The Rays, who entered the playoffs with the second-best record in the American League, were unable to muster a single run in either game, falling by scores of 9-0 and 10-0.

Tampa Bay Rays Fall to Rangers in Embarrassing Sweep

Despite opening the season with a historic thirteen straight wins, the Tampa Bay Rays bowed out of the 2023 postseason at the hands of the Texas Rangers in a humiliating two-game sweep.

The AL’s second-best scoring team only managed a single run across the two games, leaving fans stunned and disappointed.

While baseball can be cruel at the best of times, it’s safe to say that virtually nobody expected the Rays to fall to the Rangers in successive blowout games. For the fifth straight season, October baseball has yielded a fruitless return for the Tampa Bay Rays.

Despite holding the lead in the AL East for most of the early goings of the season, the Rays were no match for the Baltimore Orioles by the time the Birds took flight. Despite winning 99 games, the Rays fell into the AL’s Wild Card mix.

In Game 1 of the series against the Texas Rangers, only 19,000 fans packed into Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. Apart from this being the lowest postseason MLB attendance in over 100 years, it also probably had some fairly significant psychological effects on the Rays. By contrast, double the amount of fans attended Target Field during the Twins’ Wild Card game against the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday.

With a payroll of about $80 million, the fourth-lowest in MLB, the Tampa Bay Rays certainly punched above their weight this season. However, as we saw against the Rangers, coming from behind was an Achilles Heel for the Rays this year. They were 20-79 after surrendering the first run of the game.

Before Mead’s RBI, the Rays had gone 33 innings without scoring a run, which is the second-longest dry spell in MLB history. Until the team can translate single-season success into playoff results, their claim to elite status within the league will not be taken seriously.