Rays Madness: championship matchup

Final part!

In the spirit of march madness, I created a 16 team bracket with different Rays teams of the past, and have been utilizing a baseball simulator to play out a single elimination bracket and to determine the winner of each matchup.

The seeding was decided on a ranking of each previous Rays team’s regular season winning percentage, with the 2020 Rays earning the no. 1 seed with a .667 winning percentage. Each game is simulated just one time (higher seeded team bats second), and the results are final.

Here are the results so far!

You can catch up with part one, part two, and part three here!

Here we are, after legendary matchups, Cinderella runs, and “march madness” moments, we’re finally down to our final two teams: The 2020 Rays and the 2023 Rays.

The 2020 Tampa Bay Rays are considered (maybe) the best team in franchise history, finishing their season with a 40-20 record, an AL East crown, and the American League Pennant.

This squad had a pretty easy ride through the first two rounds, dominating both the 2004 Devil Rays and moving comfortably past the 2018 Rays. Things got a little tricky in the final four as they trailed through the first six innings, but a huge home run in the seventh helped propel them to another victory over the 2017 team.

With the championship on the line and each team getting their top pitcher back, the 2020 team will be putting Blake Snell on the mound. Snell was an AL Cy Young winner in his time in Tampa Bay and 2020 was another solid year for him, boasting a 3.24 ERA and a 4-2 record in the COVID-shortened season. Though this season is infamous for him being pulled (perhaps) prematurely in game five of the World Series, perhaps he will have a chance to deliver for his team this time.

The 2023 Rays come into this championship game on the backs of some electric moments so far in the tournament. Their first round matchup against the 2015 Rays ended in a walk-off single in the bottom of the tenth, and their second round matchup ended with a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth against the 2010 Rays. They were able to move comfortably past the 2013 Rays in the final four, however there is certainly a chance we’ll see more fireworks in this matchup.

This team will be putting Zach Eflin up on the mound for the championship game. Eflin finished 2023 with a career-high 11 wins boasting a 3.50 ERA in the process. Though he wasn’t the ace that team expected going into the year, he held an injury-filled pitching rotation together in the late parts of the season.

2023 Rays Lineup

1. Wander Franco
2. Randy Arozarena
3. Yandi Diaz
4. Josh Lowe
5. Jose Siri
6. Isaac Paredes
7. Harold Ramirez
8. Brandon Lowe
9. Christian Bethancourt

2020 Rays Lineup

1. Kevin Kiermaier
2. Yandi Diaz
3. Brandon Lowe
4. Randy Arozarena
5. Willy Adames
6. Joey Wendle
7. Ji-Man Choi
8. Yoshi Tsutsugo
9. Michael Perez

Bottom of the first: 2023 - 0 2020 - 0

The 2020 squad wasted no time boasting their bats in this one, with Lowe drilling a single into centerfield and immediately finding his way to third on a single by Arozarena. With two outs and runners on the corners and no outs, Eflin would prove his worth as a pitcher and strike out Adames to retire the side with no damage to the scoreboard.

Bottom of the fourth: 2023 - 0, 2020 - 0

After some relatively uninteresting innings of baseball, we find ourselves in the bottom of the fourth still scoreless.

It wouldn’t take long into this frame for Arozarena to finally break the tie, hitting a home run that just cleared the short wall in left field to make it 1-0. Wendle would respond two at bats later with a home run of his own to make it a 2-0 game entering the fifth inning.

Top of the fifth: 2023 - 0, 2020 - 2

Following a poor fourth inning for the 2023 squad, Paredes would ease tensions in his dugout with a towering home run over the centerfield wall to cut the lead in half.

Snell wouldn’t allow much more damage however, as he struck out the next two batters to hold onto the 2-1 lead through five innings.

Top of the sixth: 2023 - 1, 2020 - 2

Following a much needed home run in the fifth inning, the 2023 Rays found themselves in about as good a situation you could ever ask for in a championship game.

A single by Lowe would get this inning started for the group, followed by another single by Bethancourt which moved Lowe to third base. A randy Arozarena walk two at bats later would load the bases with just one out, an extremely favorable situation for the 2023 squad.

With two premier hitters due up, the 2020 group looked to be in a scary situation. However, Snell would once again pull through, striking out both Diaz and Lowe to get out of the inning without allowing a single run. Madness!

Tampa Bay Rays

Bottom of the seventh: 2023 - 1, 2020 - 2

With the 2023 group unable to put together a scoring run, the 2020 Rays were in need of some insurance runs as Snell’s day on the mound was finished.

Tsutsugo would try to gets something going with a two-out single to right field. Perez follows up with a ball in the gap, and from the jump Tsutsugo is running full speed around the bases. Blowing by his third base coach telling him to stop, Tsutsugo ran full speed home and was called safe on a bang-bang play at the plate, extending the lead 3-1.

Top of the eighth: 2023 - 1, 2020 - 3

With a two-run lead still in their way and not much time to get back into the game, the 2023 squad is desperate for a late-game run to put them back into this game.

Franco would get things started for his team with a single to centerfield, and another single by Arozarena suddenly puts the go-ahead run to the plate with just one out. A sacrifice fly by Diaz and suddenly the 2023 team is 90 feet away from this being a one run game.

Lowe, however, was not interested in cutting the deficit to one, as he connected perfectly with a ball that sailed far over the outfielders heads, and into the blue seats, a monster home run to completely swing the momentum of the game and give the 2023 Rays a 4-3 lead in the eighth inning. Santa Maria!

Bottom of the ninth: 2023 - 4, 2020 - 3

This is it, down one run with a championship on the line in the bottom of the ninth, every baseball fan’s dream.

Wendle and Choi go down rather unceremoniously with ground outs, and suddenly the 2020 squad is one out away from being runner-up, yet again.

Back-to-back walks by Tsutsugo and Perez would make things interesting, though, with the winning run now on first base and the top of the order up to bat.

Kiermaier would then smoke a single to left field, sending Tsutsugo around the bases. He would take roughly three strides towards home plate before realizing he wasn’t going to make it, and a poor throw by Bethancourt is the only thing preventing him from being tagged out at third; nevertheless, the bases are loaded with two outs and Diaz up to bat.

The 2023 team would send Pete Fairbanks into the game for this moment, creating perhaps the most storybook final at-bat you could conjure in this tournament: two legendary Rays facing off in the bottom of the ninth with the championship on the line.

Yandi Diaz would take a swing at a low fastball, sending all the baserunners around the bases as fast as they could run, as Jose Siri runs back towards the centerfield wall, he quickly finds himself at the warning track. A leap up to the wall was a last ditch effort to save the game, but it came up short and the ball flew over his glove, ending the game in walk-off fashion, as Diaz ends the tournaments with a story book grand slam to seal a championship for the 2020 Rays.

Madness! Madness! Madness!

Championship MVP: Yandi Diaz

It’s hard to argue against the future AL batting champion here. While he may not have contributed much in this game offensively until the final hour, his grand slam saved this 2020 team from yet another crushing defeat in their final game.

Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports