The Rays' World Series run is over. They lost to the Milwaukee Brewers in five games, and Rick and Steve look at it from both sides. Nobody expected this team to be here: Rick notes they weren't even picked to win the AL East, let alone win it by a lot and sweep the Yankees. But it's the third World Series the Rays have lost, and a loss like that doesn't go away. They credit Milwaukee (the best team in baseball, with a lineup Drew Rasmussen called relentless) and also point to what the Rays didn't do: score 12 runs in five games, hit .182, go 8 for 39 with runners in scoring position, and get what they needed from Junior Caminero, Jonathan Aranda, and Yandy Diaz. Chandler Simpson, who tied Randy Arozarena's franchise record with eight hits in a World Series, drew praise as the one player who did everything he could. Steve offers a stat about the Brewers' bottom of the order, where Cooper Pratt had six straight at-bats with a hit, while the Rays' seventh, eighth, and ninth hitters had six hits all series.
They defend Kevin Cash ("When you don't hit, what do you want the manager to do?"), talk about whether Rasmussen's Game 5 start on short rest was a good call, and look at how Milwaukee learned from last year's NLCS sweep and finished the job. Rick and Steve look at a franchise that was displaced to a minor league park a year ago and is now going to the World Series, what needs to happen with the offseason pitching staff (Peralta and Martinez are likely gone, with Shane McClanahan and Ryan Pepiot possibly returning), and why a lockout could keep baseball away longer than anyone wants. Rick reflects on why they feel like they're coming back down a mountain, and Steve says it may have been the most fun Rays season he's seen (Rick says the 2008 team still edges it).
The back half returns to the Tampa Bay sports market. Brewers fans took over the Trop for Games 4 and 5, and Rick makes the case that Tampa Bay is a young market built on newcomers: Steve estimates fewer than a third of residents are natives, the franchises date to 1976 at the earliest, and it's a tourism and healthcare economy. Steve compares it to Atlanta and points out how many former players still live here. They also note the six championship rounds in six years. Along the way they celebrate Joe Davis borrowing Bob Uecker's home run call for the Brewers' Cooper Pratt homer and the Williamson walk-off, with a Jack Buck/Joe Buck/Vin Scully history lesson, and applaud Taylor Walls for pushing back on a question after Game 4. After a sponsor break, the Bucs get their turn: Baker Mayfield's glove, strength against strength with Atlanta's run defense, the Bucs' second-in-the-league 12 takeaways, 13 sacks in three games, Michael Penix Jr.'s first game at Raymond James, Baker's chip against Kevin Stefanski, and the Bucs' search for their first home win.
Segments
- The Rays lose the World Series in five: a season nobody expected
- Disappointment and credit for Milwaukee
- Caminero, Aranda, Yandy, and the offensive struggles
- Chandler Simpson's World Series
- Cooper Pratt, the Brewers' bottom of the order, and the MVP
- 12 runs in five games: why the Rays lost
- Defending Kevin Cash
- Looking ahead: Neander, the pitching staff, and the lockout
- The mountain after the season: why it's so hard to get back
- Brewers fans take over the Trop and Tampa Bay's market identity
- Tampa Bay's run of championship rounds
- Joe Davis, Bob Uecker, and baseball broadcasting history
- Taylor Walls pushes back on a postgame question
- Sponsor: Breitling Boutique, International Plaza
- Bucs preview: Baker Mayfield, takeaways, and the Falcons
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