TORONTO – Unsure of their next destination, the Tampa Bay Rays could only wait.
Minutes earlier they had defeated the Toronto Blue Jays in their final scheduled game of the 2013 season. The win assured the Rays of another game, the only remaining question was where it would take place.
The result of the already-in-progress Rangers-Angels game would provide the Rays with direction. A Rangers loss would eliminate Texas from the playoff picture and set up a Wild Card game between Tampa Bay and Cleveland. A Rangers win would send the Rays to Texas for a tiebreaker game 163.
So between 4:29 p.m. ET, when the Rays finished playing, and 5:04 p.m., when the Rangers officially beat the Angels, Tampa Bay’s players, coaches and staff gathered together in the visiting clubhouse at Rogers Centre.
“We literally had to watch the end of the game on TV,” recalls starter Alex Cobb. “We all huddled around waiting to see where we were going to fly.”
So began one of the most memorable weeks in Rays history. Three years later, Tampa Bay’s now the lone AL East team not contending in a heavily congested playoff picture. With two-plus weeks to play, the possibility of tiebreaker-induced chaos remains real.
For example, if the Blue Jays and Red Sox end the season tied atop the AL East, they’d play a one-game tiebreaker for the division title (home-field advantage would go to the team that takes the season series, which is now tied 8-8). If the Blue Jays and Orioles were to tie for the second Wild Card, they’d play a must-win game for the right to advance. If three AL East teams tie, it gets even more chaotic.
All things considered, it’s really not that hard to imagine scenarios where the Blue Jays relive the craziness the 2013 Rays experienced first-hand. Sounds exhausting. But for some teams it’s the only shot at the World Series.
“The playoffs are the playoffs, man,” says Rays third baseman Evan Longoria. “Once you get in you feel like you have as much of a chance as anybody.”
The first step for the 2013 Rays was a date with the Rangers, who had just won seven consecutive games. With Cobb on reserve for a potential Wild Card game, the Rays started David Price against Texas. He pitched a complete game, and the Rays won 5-2, setting off a celebration in Arlington.
The Tampa Bay Rays pour beer and champagne on pitcher David Price (Tony Gutierrez/AP)
Soon after the dogpile formed around Price, reality set in for Cobb.
“When we all stormed the field in Texas I started getting nervous,” he recalls. While a night of partying awaited his teammates, Cobb avoided the champagne. “I just went back to the training room and sat by myself.”
The next day, as Pirates fans mocked Johnny Cueto so thoroughly that he literally dropped the ball in the NL Wild Card game, Cobb watched from his hotel room. “I’m thinking I’d better not do that,” he recalls.
When Cobb took the field in Cleveland, Indians fans were on him from the moment he started stretching, yelling with an intensity normally reserved for games. Staying focused was a challenge, especially knowing that winner-take-all Wild Card games can take on a Super Bowl-type sense of urgency.
“Everyone in the industry’s watching and you know that,” Cobb says. “You view it as time to showcase yourself a little bit instead of being frightened. When you throw that first pitch and the game starts rolling in its own direction, you feel more comfortable.”
Thankfully for the Rays, Cleveland’s lineup couldn’t do any damage against Cobb, who pitched 6.2 scoreless innings. Tampa Bay won 4-0 on a day one of their homegrown pitchers took a meaningful step forward.
“It was joyful, man,” Cobb recalls. “I remember walking off just feeling exhausted. What a whirlwind we just went through. A feeling of relief and excitement.”
All of that for the right to appear in the ALDS. By the time the Rays arrived in Boston to face the Red Sox, they’d had themselves quite a week.
“You’re basically fuelled by adrenalin the last month or month and a half of the season just because your body is so fatigued from playing so many games and the emotional ups and downs,” Longoria says. “Without that adrenalin it’d be tough to get out there every day. Your body just knows it’s got to make more adrenalin. It’s an amazing feeling.”
Sounds powerful. Does it last?
“Oh yeah,” Longoria said. “You’re excited every day in the playoffs. There’s no letdown. Once it’s all over it’s like a balloon letting out its air. You’re finally able to breathe again, relax and kick your feet up on the couch again. While it’s going on you’re so tightly wound that it’s tough to do those things.”
The Rays’ memorable run ended in the ALDS, which Boston won in four games on the way to a World Series title. It added up to an unprecedented stretch of baseball for the Rays, something this year’s contenders should be prepared for if the standings stay this close. It’d be a grind, but that’s why you play.
“Winning is fun,” Longoria says. “Ultimately, when you get to a certain point in your career, what the game is about. Playing meaningful games this late in the season is a big deal.”
