Here's What the Rays Must Change to Save Their Season

In a must-win Game 3 of the World Series, the Tampa Bay Rays were unable to get the job done. Now, for the rest of the series, it will be do-or-die for the Rays’ postseason hopes. That starts on Tuesday night in Game 4. 

Coming into Game 3, Tampa Bay might not have felt great about being down 2-0 in the World Series, but they had to know that they were able to compete with the Milwaukee Brewers. 

Unfortunately, not being able to come up with the clutch hit and shockingly making both some mental and physical errors resulted in the team being down 0-2. 

On Monday, it was simply not the Rays’ night. The Brewers blew the game wide open with an eight-run fifth inning. It was certainly a frame to forget for the Rays, and everything just seemingly went wrong. 

However, in the 10-1 loss, it was once again the offense that didn’t do much to help out either. For much of the postseason, the batting order has not gotten the job done, and if the team is going to win Game 4 and try to make this a series, that is going to have to change. 

Offense Must Come Alive 

While it’s easy to say that the pitching has to be better after allowing 10 runs in a game, the offensive struggles have been more of the overall issue for Tampa Bay. 

So far in the three games against the Brewers, they have only been able to muster seven runs. Averaging less than three runs a game is not going to result in many wins, and it hasn’t. 

When looking at most of their regular players and their biggest producers, the Rays don’t have a single slugger that has an over .800 OPS in the postseason. With some struggles, their star trio of Yandy Diaz, Jonathan Aranda, and Junior Caminero are all in the .700s now. 

Furthermore, the supporting cast, for the most part, has not gotten the job done. If the Rays are going to turn things around, it has to start on Tuesday night. Tampa Bay will be facing off against Dustin May, and they must find ways to string together good at-bats and put some pressure on Milwaukee. 

This is an offense that can cause problems for an opponent, but the Rays haven’t been able to get on base nearly enough. If they are going to make some noise, it will be the bats that have to lead the way.