The Tampa Bay Rays wrapped up the 2023 regular season on Sunday with a 12-8 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.
The win was the 99th of the year for Tampa Bay, which earned the No. 1 wild card spot in the American League playoffs.
As a result, they'll host the Texas Rangers in a best-of-three series beginning on Tuesday. The full schedule for the wild card round of the playoffs can be seen here.
In addition to the team success in 2023, there was also great individual success for the Rays as slugger Yandy Diaz made some team history.
Per the Rays on social media:
“I got it” -Yandy DÍaz
By “it” he means the 1st AL Batting Title in Rays history.
Yup, Diaz won the American League batting title this year, hitting .330 over 525 at-bats. He also hit 22 home runs and drove in 78 while posting an OPS of .932.
It was the best season of Diaz's career, which now spans seven years with the Guardians and Rays. Lifetime, he's a .290 hitter with 61 homers and 276 RBI.
While the Rays have the great record and home field advantage in the wild card round of the playoffs, they are facing an uphill climb to try to win the first World Series for the franchise.
They are out multiple elite pitchers including Shane McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen and Jeffrey Springs, and are also without their best overall player Wander Franco. Brandon Lowe is also out for potentially the entire playoff run.
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