Rays officially eliminated from playoffs with loss to Red Sox

The Tampa Bay Rays will have to wait a year for another chance to make the postseason. On Friday night, the Rays were officially eliminated from playoff contention, as pointed out by Talkin’ Baseball on X, following their 11-7 loss to the Boston Red Sox.

This defeat pushed their record on the year to 75-79, and with the current third place team in the AL Wild Card standings, the Houston Astros, having already won 84 games, it became mathematically impossible for the Rays to sneak into the postseason.

On Friday, the Rays kept it close against the Red Sox for most of the night. Tampa Bay was even leading 3-2 until the sixth inning. But then the seventh and eighth innings came along and proved to be a major disaster for the Rays, with their defense faltering and opening up the floodgates for the Red Sox, who scored nine runs in the seventh and eighth to put the game to bed.

It all began when Rays reliever Garrett Cleavinger allowed a two-run home run to Red Sox star Jarren Duran to give Boston a 4-3 lead in the seventh. Everything then went off the rails in the eighth, with Tampa Bay committing two errors and Boston not letting up, scoring seven to end the Rays’ playoff hopes in such a demoralizing fashion.

After a strong start to the new decade, the past two seasons for the Rays have been very difficult, as they have been unable to keep up with the giants of the powerhouse AL East division.

The Rays have always been punching above their weight class in terms of player payroll, but they are yet to strike gold again with the kind of cost-controlled, versatile star players who have proven to be the backbone of contending iterations of the team in years past.

Rays look forward to 2026 with hope