While the Milwaukee Brewers are celebrating their first World Series championship, the Tampa Bay Rays are wondering what went wrong. This team had the best record in the American League and won the AL East by 4.5 games. They also went 7-2 in the postseason before the World Series, making both the New York Yankees and Cleveland Guardians look lost. While many thought the Brewers would win the series, the Rays were expected to at least give them a fight. Many thought they could push the series to at least six games, with some even seeing it go the distance.
But a gentleman’s sweep is one of the last things fans expected. They did not think the Rays would get dominated the first three games, then need a miracle just to extend the series to five. When you look back on this series, you will find that everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong for the Rays. They gave the Brewers plenty of opportunities, and the Brewers took advantage of each. But how did these mistakes leave the Rays on the short end of the series?
Miscues and Poor Performances Cost the Rays the Series
The series tone was set in the first inning of Game 1, when Jonny DeLuca couldn’t make a diving catch on a Christian Yelich hit, allowing a run to score. The next batter, William Contreras, hit a liner that shortstop Taylor Walls couldn’t handle, giving the Brewers a 2-0 lead. In Game 2, Jonathan Aranda made a couple of mistakes that led to two Brewers runs. Had he made these plays, the Rays likely could’ve held off the Brewers’ comeback and tied the series at one going back to the Trop.
The Rays also made basepath mistakes that cost them runs. During their collapse in Game 2, Liam Hicks was thrown out at the plate on a ball hit to left field. It was a send that made no sense. The ball was hit to shallow left field, and Hicks is not known for his speed. According to Baseball Savant, his sprint speed is in the 13th percentile; he had no chance of scoring from second. To make things worse, Jackson Chourio has an arm strength in the 75th percentile. Had they played it safer, Hicks could have scored and given them a two-run lead.
But mistakes alone didn’t cost the Rays this series. The guys they had relied on all postseason came up short when it mattered most. Specifically, the starting pitching. Drew Rasmussen had been their ace all postseason, but allowed four runs in 7 2/3 World Series innings. Freddy Peralta also struggled, giving up five runs in 4 2/3 innings. These were the two pitchers the Rays had relied on throughout the postseason. When they come up short and lead to three losses, it’s hard to recover.
Their pitchers weren’t the only ones who struggled this series. Their bats couldn’t deliver the clutch hitting they did in the previous two series. As a team, they only averaged 2.4 runs per game. With the pitching struggling so much, barely getting over two runs is a recipe for disaster. The guys they relied on also struggled. Specifically, Yandy Diaz and Junior Caminero. Diaz had only three hits throughout the series, and Caminero had only four. When your best hitters go cold, the whole lineup suffers.
In the end, a series of errors and underperformance cost the Rays the series. Had they had better luck in the field, or more clutch hitters among their big hitters, they could be lifting the Commissioner’s Trophy for the first time in franchise history.
