TAMPA — There was little drama, and certainly no surprise, as the Rays had been heading this direction for a while, especially in the last week or so.
There already had been talk of rookies getting additional opportunities that will benefit them next season. Friday afternoon, some players packed boxes with gear, clearly not expecting to be returning after this weekend to play again at Steinbrenner Field.
And with an ugly 11-7 loss to the Red Sox in Game 154, the inevitable became official as the Rays were formally eliminated from the American League playoff race.
“It’s frustrating,” Rays starter Drew Rasmussen said. “It sucks. It sucks to not be in the playoff picture.”
Worse, after reaching the postseason for five straight seasons from 2019-2023 — including a 2020 run to the World Series — the Rays are going home early for the second straight season.
“You feel frustrated in that [it’s] back-to-back years of failing, essentially,” manager Kevin Cash said. “We come out of spring training with the expectation that we’re going to find a way to play postseason baseball, and we just have not played good enough to do that.
“No finger-pointing. To our entire roster, and certainly myself, we just haven’t gotten it done.”
The loss dropped the Rays to 75-79 and made another, albeit lesser, achievement also unlikely — finishing above .500. To do so, they would have to go 7-1 the rest of the way. To match last year’s 80-82 record, 5-3.
Also in play is avoiding finishing last in the American League East. The Rays, who haven’t finished fifth since 2016, are two games ahead of the Orioles, whom they face three times next week.
As exciting as making the playoffs had been, missing out — even in a season in which they were displaced from the hurricane-damaged Tropicana Stadium to Steinbrenner Field and lost several key players to injuries — was painful.
“You could put all sorts of silver linings on it and point to things, but the bottom line is it’s disappointing, and we don’t want even this level of disappointment to be accepted or normalized in any way,” baseball operations president Erik Neander said.
“No excuses. We’ve got to continue to get settled back in our home ballpark next year and find a way to continue to grow and develop this club in a way that allows us the best chance to get back.”
The Rays looked to have their chances to get in, with a 25-9 May-June stretch that got them near the division lead and a seven-game late August-early September winning streak that put them back in the wild-card chase. But they faltered after both runs.
“We just couldn’t quite get synced up the way you need to to be a postseason team,” Neander said “That’s something we’ll spend a lot of time thinking about, reflecting on, figuring out what’s just baseball and what needs to get better. There’ll be plenty in the latter, and we need to find our way back.”
Friday’s loss was a somewhat fitting representation of some of their issues this season as the bullpen blew a seventh-inning lead and they played sloppily overall, making a season-high-matching three errors and walking five.
Rasmussen, making the 30th start of an overall impressive return to the rotation, was not sharp, lasting just three innings while throwing 76 pitches. He also failed to cover first base, leading to a run.
Still, the Rays had a 3-2 lead after a back-and-forth first three innings against Sox ace Garrett Crochet.
Yandy Diaz, starting a three-hit night, doubled in the first and scored on a two-out single by Nick Fortes. Rookie Carson Williams homered off Crochet in the second, his fifth round-tripper in 25 games.
Diaz hit his season-high-extending 25th homer of the season in the third and, adding to the accomplishment, the 100th of his career.
“[I’m] happy,” he said via team interpreter Eddie Rodriguez. “Everybody knows that I’m not a home run hitter, but thank God I was able to get to the 100 mark.”
The Rays took the lead to the seventh, but Garrett Cleavinger, arguably their best reliever, allowed a leadoff single to Ceddanne Rafaela and then a two-run go-ahead homer to Jarren Duran. That drew a large cheer from the Red Sox partisans in the sold-out Steinbrenner Field crowd of 10,046.
The Sox added seven more runs in a rough eighth off debuting reliever Cole Wilcox to make it 11-3. The Rays got some back on Everson Pereira’s grand slam with two outs in the ninth.
“It’s very frustrating,” Diaz said. “But there’s nothing we can do about it. We just have to start preparing for next season.”
