The Tampa Bay Rays have one final tuneup on Wednesday afternoon as they ready for a likely trip to Cleveland for the Wildcard round over the weekend. Boston, meanwhile, is poised for a busy offseason of updating their roster and making hard decisions about a few key veteran free agents. On the mound on Wednesday will be righty Drew Rasmussen (11-7, 2.84) of the Rays taking on Nick Pivetta (10-12, 4.56) of the BoSox. First pitch is scheduled for 4:10pm EST.
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Last season, the Rays walked into the postseason with 100 wins and were arguably the favorites to represent the AL in the World Series. Instead, the Rays were bounced in four games by the Red Sox and left looking for answers. This year, Tampa Bay has not had the dominant regular season that they enjoyed last season and limp into the playoffs as the 6th seed in the American League and are not being mentioned amongst the possible playoff favorites like Houston, New York and even Toronto. Perhaps Tampa Bay has everyone right where they want them. On Tuesday night in their next-to-last tuneup before the playoffs, the Rays were shutout in a rained shortened game 6-0. Tampa Bay now knows they'll be traveling to Cleveland for the wildcard series.
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— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) October 1, 2022
The Rays are just 7-13 in their last 20 games and have fallen from the fourth to the sixth spot in the wildcard standings in that time. The Rays do have their rotation lined up as Friday nears with Shane McClanahan ready to go on full rest for game one. It will be interesting to see how the Rays utilize their rotation after that with Corey Kluber and the red-hot Jeffrey Springs both rested and ready for game two. Today's starter, Drew Rasmussen, doesn't appear to factor in to one of the three starts at the moment despite his 2.87 ERA on the season. He would be able to give the Rays some relief work if there were a game three on Sunday.