ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays seemed just like the workforce to beat after they began the season 13-0 whereas outscoring opponents 101-30.

Two days into the postseason, the Rays rapidly have been dispatched for the third straight yr.

Texas superior to an AL Division Series by beating the Rays 7-1 on Wednesday for a two-game sweep.

The potent offense that spearheaded Tampa Bay to first place from opening day by way of mid-July light down the stretch.

“It’s frustrating, but it’s part of the game,” Rays supervisor Kevin Cash stated.

Curtis Mead’s seventh-inning RBI single stopped Tampa Bay’s 33-inning postseason scoreless streak relationship to final yr, The streak was the second longest in MLB historical past, trailing solely the Los Angeles Dodgers 34-inning run from 1966-74. Tampa Bay hit .161 in 4 playoff video games over two years.

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“I’m glad we scored a run because if not we’d have been talking about that a lot,” Cash stated. “Look, our bats just didn’t come to life.”

Tampa Bay misplaced key contributors from the spectacular begin.

Shortstop Wander Franco was positioned on administrative go away by Major League Baseball in August as Dominican Republic authorities look into allegations of a relationship with a minor. Slugging second baseman Brandon Lowe ended the season sidelined by a knee damage, whereas heart fielder Jose Siri returned from a fractured proper hand for Game 1 however didn’t play on Wednesday.

“Look, that’s a easy narrative,” Cash stated. “We are who we are, and we finished the regular season with the guys we had. I still feel that we could have had a better showing with the roster we had.”

Zach Eflin, Wednesday’s shedding pitcher, stated the abrupt ending isn’t straightforward.

“We didn’t expect to be out right now,” Efllin stated. “There’s no easy way to say it sucks. I really didn’t have any offseason plans until the first week of November and the second week of November. It’s not a good feeling.”

Tampa Bay has misplaced a franchise-record seven straight postgame video games.

“Unfortunately this is a series where we couldn’t get runs, we couldn’t get enough guys on base,” Tampa Bay shortstop Taylor Walls stated. “We couldn’t fairly maintain their offense and maintain their offense quiet sufficient to attempt to make issues occur.

Eflin, tied for the AL lead with 16 regular-season wins. He and Game 1 starter Tyler Glasnow mixed for six.30 ERA in opposition to the Rangers, permitting seven earned runs in 10 innings.

“I just thanked them.” Cash stated of his parting phrases to the workforce. “It’s a pretty special group. Want more for them than maybe we got. But thanked the staff, the support staff and mostly the players for the way that they kind of held everything together.”

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