Rangers sweep Rays, advance to face Orioles in ALDS

The Texas Rangers defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 7-1 on Wednesday to sweep their American League wild-card series at Tropicana Field.

It's the Rangers' first playoff series win since the 2011 American League Championship Series, the fifth in the franchise's 62-year history, and their first-ever sweep. They'll now face the 101-win Baltimore Orioles in the ALDS beginning Saturday at 1 p.m. ET at Camden Yards.

It was an utterly dominant sweep for Texas, which outscored Tampa Bay 11-1 over the 18-inning series. The Rangers became the sixth team ever to hold an opponent to one or fewer runs during a multi-game playoff series, while their 15 shutout frames to open the series is now the longest postseason scoreless streak in team history.

Texas also became the first team to open a postseason run with consecutive road wins of four-plus runs since the 2010 Rangers, who also did it against the Rays, according to ESPN Stats & Info.

A pair of rookies led the way offensively for Texas on Wednesday. Third baseman Josh Jung tied a rookie playoff record with three extra-base hits while also scoring two runs, and he drove in the winning run with his fourth-inning triple. Jung is the sixth rookie to record three extra-base hits in a playoff game and the first to do it in the wild-card round, according to Sarah Langs of MLB.com.

Evan Carter also launched a homer and drove in two runs to continue his dominant start to the postseason. Carter, a top Rangers prospect who only made his MLB debut in September, hit .750/.875/.2000 during the series and reached base in seven of his eight plate appearances.

Veteran right-hander Nathan Eovaldi shut down the Rays' bats, scattering six hits and one run over 6 2/3 innings while striking out eight. Josh Sborz and José Leclerc followed out of the bullpen.

The victory also made manager Bruce Bochy only the fourth skipper to win a playoff round with three different franchises, alongside Bob Melvin, Dusty Baker, and Davey Johnson, per Langs. Bochy, 68, came out of retirement this offseason to succeed Chris Woodward as the Rangers' manager.

Tampa Bay, meanwhile, lost its seventh straight playoff game dating back to 2021 while being outscored 11-1 over the two-game series. A run in the seventh snapped the Rays' playoff scoreless streak, which began in last year's wild-card series, at 33 innings. It's the second-longest scoring drought in playoff history, per ESPN Stats & Info.

Rays starter Zach Eflin, the team's marquee free-agent signing, was rocked for five runs (four earned) on eight hits over five innings. Second baseman Curtis Mead's fifth-inning error was his team's fifth of the series, a stunning turn of events for the normally defensively sound club.

It's a sour ending to a Rays campaign that began with much promise. Kevin Cash's club appeared ready to run away with the AL East after tying a modern-era record with 13 straight wins to begin the season before a series of pitching injuries allowed Baltimore to catch Tampa Bay atop the division.

A crowd of 20,198 watched Wednesday's game at Tropicana Field, one day after the Rays drew MLB's smallest non-pandemic playoff crowd in 104 years.