2023 American League Wild Card Series 2

2023 American League Wild Card Series

Texas Rangers 90 - 72 in the AL	2 - 0 Series Summary	Tampa Bay Rays 99 - 63 in the AL

Overview[edit]

The Teams[edit]

Managers: Rays: Kevin Cash | Rangers: Bruce Bochy

Rays

Rangers

Umpires[edit]

Carlos Torres, Tripp Gibson, Lance Barksdale, Adrian Johnson, Adam Beck, Alex Tosi

Series results[edit]

Game	Score	Date	Starters	Time (ET)
1	Texas Rangers 4 Tampa Bay Rays 0	October 3	Jordan Montgomery (1-0) Tyler Glasnow (0-1)	3:08 pm
2	Texas Rangers 7 Tampa Bay Rays 1	October 4	Nathan Eovaldi (1-0) Zach Eflin (0-1)	3:08 pm

Results[edit]

Game 1 @ Tropicana Field[edit]

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Rangers	0	1	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	4	9	1
Rays	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	4
WP: Jordan Montgomery (1-0); LP: Tyler Glasnow (0-1)
Home Runs: none

Attendance: 19,704

Game 1 of the Series was played in front of a disappointing crowd of less than 20,000 at Tropicana Field (and it looked a lot smaller than that), in spite of the team having finally made progress in the past couple of weeks on securing a solution to their long-term ballpark woes. The lack of support from their fans in spite of putting together another outstanding season while operating on a tiny budget and being ravaged by injuries, could not have been very motivating for the Rays. The Rangers could also have come into this game with the wrong attitude, having stumbled down the stretch and missed a division title that was theirs for the taking and that would have come with a bye into the second round only because they had come up on the wrong end of a tiebreaker with the Houston Astros. But they were the team that looked ready to play today, as the Rays put on some distinctly sloppy baseball on their way to losing the game.

After a scoreless 1st inning against Tyler Glasnow, the Rangers got things going in the 2nd with a leadoff single by Nathaniel Lowe, who was facing his brother Josh, one of the reserve players for the Rays. Leody Taveras advanced him to third base on a one-out single, then Josh Jung followed with a sacrifice fly. While the Rangers did not add any other runs in that frame, the Rays committed their first of four errors on the day when Taveras stole second and advanced to third on a wild throw by Rene Pinto. Evan Carter drew a walk and also stole second before Glasnow induced Marcus Semien to ground out to end the inning. The Rays got their best chance in the bottom of that inning when Curtis Mead led off with a single against Jordan Montgomery and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Manuel Margot. Taylor Walls singled to place runners on the corner, then Jose Siri tried to catch the Rangers off-guard with another bunt. He popped the ball down the first base line, but on a magnificent defensive play, Montgomery caught it just off the ground for the second out, and Pinto struck out to end the inning.

After a scoreless 3rd inning, the Rangers stranded two runners in the 4th, then in the 5th Corey Seager hit a lead-off double and Robbie Grossman drew a walk, and Adolis Garcia hit a line drive that deflected off Glasnow to load the bases. After a first out on an infield fly, Glasnow threw a wild pitch all the way to the backstop to allow Seager to score for a 2-0 lead. Glasnow struck out the next two batters, but it was Texas that was applying the pressure. In the 6th, Carter and Semien both walked to start off the frame, ending Glasnow's day. Chris Devenski came in and allowed a single to Seager; both runners scored when CF Siri overthrew third base for another error. The 4-0 lead would turn out to be the final score. Montgomery pitched seven scoreless innings to earn the win, and Aroldis Chapman and Jose Leclerc added a scoreless inning each.

Game 2 @ Tropicana Field[edit]

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Rangers	0	0	0	4	1	2	0	0	0	7	12	1
Rays	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	8	1
WP: Nathan Eovaldi (1-0); LP: Zach Eflin (0-1)
Home Runs: TEX - Adolis Garcia (1), Evan Carter (1)

Attendance: 20,198

There was another disappointing crowd on hand at Tropicana Field for Game 2, this one barely over 20,000 after the previous day's game had seen the smallest postseason crowd in over 100 years (not counting the COVID-19 limitations on attendance), and the lack of energy in the building was palpable. The Rays, reeling from injuries to a number of key players, were never really in the game as they lost, 7-1, completing a two-game sweep by the Rangers. On the mound, the game featured two experienced veterans coming off good seasons in Nathan Eovaldi and Zach Eflin, but the former easily had the upper hand today.

There was no scoring through the first three innings, but the Rangers applied a fatal blow in the 4th, after a double play had thwarted an excellence chance when they had placed their first two batters on base in the 3rd. This time, there was no escaping fate for the Rays, however: Adolis Garcia led off with a homer off Eflin, then with two outs, Leody Taveras hit a single. He stole second base and scored on a triple by Josh Jung, and rookie Evan Carter followed with a homer, making it 4-0. The Rangers did not stop there, though: they added a run in the 5th and two more in the 6th to put the game completely out of reach. In the 5th, Corey Seager reached on an error by 2B Curtis Mead, Robbie Grossman moved him to third with a single and he scored on a ground out by Nathaniel Lowe. In the 6th, against Colin Poche, Jung, Marcus Semien and Seager all hit doubles to make it 7-0. Tampa scored its only run in the bottom of the 7th on three singles by Josh Lowe, Isaac Paredes and Mead, but it was too little too late. Josh Sborz replaced Eovaldi to record the final out of the inning and also pitched a scoreless 8th before Jose Leclerc handled the 9th and ended things. The Rays looked nothing like a team that had come up one win short of 100 in the regular season, and Texas was moving on.