ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — After a season of ups, downs, and everything in between, the Tampa Bay Rays start their fifth consecutive postseason with a Wild Card round matchup against the Texas Rangers.
The Rays season started out with a bang, with the team jumping out to a record 13-0 winning streak. The Rays stayed red hot through the All-Star Break, posting a record of 58-35, good for first place in the AL East.
Powering the Rays lineup was outfielder Randy Arozarena who posted a .254 average with 23 home runs, 83 RBI's and an OPS of .789. Third baseman Isaac Paredes also gave the lineup some punch hitting .254 to go with 31 home runs, 98 RBI's and an OPS of .840.
While Tampa's bats helped out, the Rays' pitching staff was dominated by one word all season: injuries.
In Spring Training, the Rays had to deal with an oblique injury to Tyler Glasnow. He would rebound to be one of Tampa's top pitchers, posting a 3.53 ERA and a 10-7 record across 21 starts this season.
The biggest injury in the pitching corps came when ace pitcher Shane McClanahan went down with an elbow injury. He elected to have Tommy John surgery and will be gone from the rotation for roughly 18 months. He was pitching at a Cy Young level when he went down. At the time, he had an 11-2 record with a 3.29 ERA in 115 innings pitched.
As the Tampa Bay Times' John Romano pointed out, the injuries kept the 2023 projected pitching rotation from ever being utilized.
The other story of the season has been the loss of star shortstop Wander Franco. He has been away from the team since allegations surfaced on social media, and an investigation was launched in the Dominican Republic for an alleged relationship with a minor.
Losing Franco was a blow to the Rays, but the team rebounded to go 28-15 since he was placed on administrative leave on August 22.
Against all of that backdrop, the Rays now shift into postseason mode against the Rangers.
If the regular season is a predictor, the Rays' stay in the postseason may be short-lived. This season, Tampa finished 2-4 in six regular-season games against Texas, including being swept in a three-game series in mid-July.
Still, Texas only outscored the Rays in those six games by a margin of 27-25.
On the plus side for the Rays, Glasnow, who will start Game 1, did record one of the victories over Texas. The Rangers hit just .189 against Glasnow this season, and he posted 13 strikeouts against Texas' lineup, according to ESPN.com.
Also playing in the Rays' favor is the team will be playing in the friendly confines of Tropicana Field. Tampa Bay has posted a 4-2 record against the Rangers at Tropicana over the last two seasons.
On the other hand, Texas' starter will be Jordan Montgomery. He's only pitched six 2/3 postseason innings and has not faced Tampa Bay this season, but the Rays are familiar with Montgomery from his time with the New York Yankees. In his career, Montgomery is 4-4, with a 5.12 ERA in 13 career starts against Tampa Bay
He'll have plenty of firepower from the Rangers' bats. Texas scored 880 runs this season to lead the American League. They also led the AL in team home runs, team batting average and team slugging percentage. However, Tampa finished just percentage points behind the Rangers in most of those categories.
The first pitch between the Rays and Rangers in the Wild Card Round will be 3:08 p.m. on Tuesday. All of the three possible games of the series can be seen on ABC.
