Despite entering the playoffs with the best record among Wild Card teams, the Rays offense struggled to show up vs. the Rangers. Tampa Bay was shut out in Game 1, which extended the team’s scoreless innings streak in the playoffs.
The Rays entered Wednesday’s Game 2 having not scored in the playoffs since the 6th inning of last year’s Wild Card Game 1 vs. the Guardians. Tampa Bay lost that game 2–1, then got shutout in 15 innings during Game 2, 1–0, leaving the 2022 postseason on an 18-inning scoreless streak.
The record for most consecutive scoreless innings in the playoffs is held by the Dodgers, who didn’t score in 34 straight innings between 1966 and ’74.
With the Rangers shutting Tampa Bay out in Game 1 this year, the Rays’ streak stood at 27 innings ahead of Game 2. That extended all the way to 33 and 2/3 innings, one out away from tying the record, when Curtis Mead laced an RBI single to snap the drought in the seventh inning, keeping Tampa Bay from tying an unfortunate piece of history.
The Rays were one out shy of tying the 1966-1974 Dodgers for the longest postseason scoring drought in MLB history (34 innings) pic.twitter.com/uU1AIF79rt
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) October 4, 2023
In the last two playoffs combined, Tampa Bay officially scored just two runs in 41 innings across four games.
Unfortunately for the Rays, Texas had already scored seven runs on Wednesday, which created a large-enough lead to bury Tampa Bay. With the loss, the Rays are eliminated despite winning 99 games in the regular season, more than all but two other teams in MLB.
