Tampa Bay Rays: The All-Time Bracket
No. 3 vs. 6 seed
The Tampa Bay Rays returned to the AL East throne in 2010, defeating Kansas City in an extra-inning thriller on the season’s final day to beat out the defending World Series champion New York Yankees by one game.
This time Longoria hit .294 with 104 RBIs and Crawford provided a .37 average with 90 RBIs.
Price, solidly established as the staff ace, was 19-6 in 31 starts with 188 strikeouts. Shields and Garza combined for 28 victories, and closer Rafael Soriano saved 45 games.
The 2018 Rays won 90 games, but that was only good enough for third place in the AL East, 18 games behind the champion Red Sox and seven games out of the wild card chase.
Much of the familiar cast, including Madden, Longoria, and Zobrist was gone by then. Left fielder Tommy Pham broke out with a .343 average, but he was only a part-timer. Second baseman Joey Wendle hit .300. But the offense underperformed at critical moments, generating just 4.42 runs per game. That was only ninth in the league.
At least the Rays could still count on their pitching, second in ERA behind only Houston’s Astros. Blake Snell was 21-5 in 31 games with a 1.89 ERA, a performance good enough to win the Cy Young Award.
Game 1: The 2010 team had a 96-66 .593 record, six games better than 2018’s 90-72 .566.
Game 2: In 2018 the Rays did not play a post-season game, handing this one to 2010 on a forfeit.
Game 3: Both teams presented 105 OPS+ scores. Among regulars, catcher Wilson Ramos led the 2018 club at 129. But Longoria beat that with a 133 OPS+ in 2010.
Game 4: The 2018 team avoided a sweep with a 110 staff ERA+. The 2010 Rays only reached 103.
Game 5: The 2-010 Rays close out the series with a 49.0 WAR, three and one-half points better than 2018’s 45.6.
Result: 2010 in five games