Call to the pen
Fansided

Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash is not the only one to blame

By Ryota Nishino

ARLINGTON, TEXAS - OCTOBER 27: The Los Angeles Dodgers celebrate after defeating the Tampa Bay Rays to win the 2020 MLB World Series on October 27, 2020. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
ARLINGTON, TEXAS - OCTOBER 27: The Los Angeles Dodgers celebrate after defeating the Tampa Bay Rays to win the 2020 MLB World Series on October 27, 2020. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /
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Kevin Cash and the Rays infield stand on the mound and wait for the new pitcher.
(Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) /

Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash will receive a lot of criticism but he is not the only person to blame for failing to win the World Series

Eyes will focus on Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash after his controversial move to pull Blake Snell after just 73 pitches into the middle of the sixth inning, but that is not the only failure in the World Series. There are plenty of other reasons why the Rays failed to capitalize on their World Series opportunity and Cash is not to blame for the entire series.

To be honest, it is amazing that the Tampa Bay Rays even made the World Series and forced a Game Six with so many of the problems they experienced. The Rays were able to claw their way into the World Series thanks to Randy Arozarena’s incredible rookie performance.

Overall the starting rotation for the Rays also performed well but the elephant in the room was the Rays offense. It was almost non-existent in the World Series outside of Randy Arozarena, Kevin Kiermaier, Yandy Diaz and Manuel Margot, which put a lot of pressure on the Rays pitchers. The Rays do rely on their pitching and defense more than they do on their offense like some teams, but what the offense did this postseason was disappointing.

To compare, the Dodgers scored 32 runs in the World Series, while the Rays scored just 22 runs. In the entire postseason, the Dodgers offense scored 98 runs in the entire postseason. The Rays scored 78 runs in the 2020 postseason.

Besides the struggling offense, some of the trusted Rays pitchers also failed to clutch up which will be highlighted. Here are a few offensive players that failed to meet expectations.

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