Yandy Diaz walks back to the dugout after flying out in the sixth inning against the Rangers in the final game of the Wild Card Series. This past season, the ongoing string of injuries (including three top starters) plus the absence of Wander Franco (for potential disciplinary reasons) eventually became too much to overcome, as they gave up 11 runs and scored only one in two home losses to Texas. In 2022, they stumbled in as the last wild card, losing their last five games, and were held to one run over 24 innings at Cleveland. In 2021, they won an AL-most 100 games and the Division Series opener at home, then lost three straight to Boston. Though the early exits gnaw at the Rays, they try not to see a collective thread in the circumstances. There’s no doubt that that has helped us.” Luckily, in the last couple of years, we’ve been a really healthy ballclub. “Sometimes injuries are just tough to predict and tough to prevent. “I know that Tampa Bay, maybe they don’t have the national stardom that some other clubs have, but they’re chock full of really good players,” Fuld said. Overall, they are 5-9 in playoff series (though they won single Wild Card Games in 20), including another unsuccessful World Series appearance in 2008. That they’ve lost their last seven playoff games, and the three first-round series, since their unsuccessful run to the 2020 World Series (played on a condensed schedule) adds to the discussion. One of the theories suggested about the Rays is that they win with depth during the daily grind of the regular season, but don’t have the star quality for some of the elite postseason matchups.
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