BOSTON — The Rays are headed to Cleveland for the best-of-three wild-card series that opens Friday.
That became official Tuesday night when the Rays lost a rain-shortened game to the Red Sox, 6-0, and the Mariners scored a 7-6 walk-off 10-inning win over the Tigers.
The Mariners are locked into the second spot in the three-team American League wild-card field, sending them to Toronto to face the top wild-card Blue Jays. The Rays finished third and will face the AL Central champ Guardians.
The Rays also lost lefty reliever Colin Poche to injury. On the pitch after allowing a grand slam, he winced and appeared to favor his right side. After a quick conversation with manager Kevin Cash and assistant athletic trainer Mike Sandoval, Poche walked off the mound.
The Rays seemed to prefer playing the Guardians, despite going 2-4 against them during the regular season and scoring only 18 runs. Part of that may have been the playoff bracketing that has the winner going on to face the Yankees. The Mariners-Blue Jays winner has to face the top-seeded Astros.
What does Rays manager Kevin Cash think of a matchup with the Guardians?
“They’ve got really good pitching,” he said when asked Monday about a potential matchup. “Their three starters that I’m guessing ... we would get, we just saw they’re very talented.
“Their bullpen is very deep. And when you put (James) Karinchak and (Emmanuel) Clase, Clase might be the best reliever in baseball. They got a guy named Jose Ramirez that sits in the middle of their lineup. And with that, we know how talented he is. They’ve got young players that really moved the baseball. So they put constant pressure. It’s tough to strike them out. So those outs are tough to come by. There’s always movement.”
The Rays were trailing 1-0 Tuesday going to the fifth when Poche took over. He loaded the bases, allowing a single, a double and a one-out walk, then a grand slam to Xander Bogaerts that made it 5-0. Poche threw one pitch to the next batter, then Brooks Raley took over. He got one out, then walked J.D. Martinez and Enrique Hernandez. First baseman Isaac Paredes fielded Eric Hosmer’s grounder but Raley couldn’t handle the toss, allowing Martinez to score to make in 6-0.
Though the game was one out from becoming official, umpire crew chief Laz Diaz called for the tarps to be put on and the teams had to wait for a formal decision.
Starter Jeffrey Springs was limited to three innings by design, and the Rays want him rested and ready for possible use in this weekend’s wild-card series.
Springs allowed one run on a walk and two hits — a pair of two-out singles in the second — while striking out three.
The Rays were limited offensively through five innings by Nathan Eovaldi, rapping just two hits, a two-out single by Jose Siri in the third and a two-out double by Taylor Walls in the fifth.
Their best chance to score came in the fourth, when Wander Franco and Ji-Man Choi drew walks. Franco moved to third on an Paredes fly out, but Jonathan Aranda grounded into a double play.
