Rays-Rangers Wild Card: 3 things I'm watching live at the Trop
By Kevin Henry
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays taking on the Texas Rangers in one of the American League Wild Card matchups wasn't what many experts had on their bingo cards a couple of weeks ago. However, the baseball gods have blessed fans with a very interesting clash between a pair of teams that just missed out on division titles.
Both teams come into Tuesday's Game 1 at Tropicana Field with 90 wins ... and plenty of regrets about what could have been. Both the Rangers and Rays finished second in their division to teams that earned first-round byes in the postseason. Tampa Bay finished two games behind top-seeded Baltimore in the AL East and Texas couldn't convert on its chances to clinch the AL West in Seattle, with the Houston Astros sneaking past them on the last day to take the division and punch their ticket past the Wild Card round.
Regrets? These teams do have a few, but they also have plenty of potential to be problematic in the postseason for any franchise matching up with them moving forward.
However, before we look ahead, let's focus on this series. I'll be at Tropicana Field for this intriguing series and here are three things I'm watching.