Rays' remarkable season comes to sudden end at Fenway Park

BOSTON (AP) — Put the popcorn away for the winter at Tropicana Field.

The AL East champion Tampa Bay Rays saw their record-setting season come to a sudden end Monday night when they lost to the Boston Red Sox 6-5 in Game 4 of their Division Series and were eliminated in the best-of-five playoff.

The Rays set a franchise best with 100 wins this season and shut out wild-card Boston at home in their postseason opener. Players sat comfortably in the dugout, several of them munching on popcorn during the game.

After a blowout loss in Game 2, they came to Fenway Park.

Two days in Boston became their own personal horror movie, ending their bid to reach a second straight World Series.

Boston clinched the series with consecutive walk-off wins and Red Sox players threw gum in the air when they celebrated near the mound after Kiké Hernández's sacrifice fly scored pinch-runner Danny Santana from third base with the decisive run in the bottom of the ninth.

"There’s no doubt there’s disappointment,” Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said. “We had high aspirations to get deep into this thing. We ran into a Red Sox team that they just beat us — no other way around it. They got the big hits.”

Christian Vázquez opened the ninth with a single off J.P. Feyereisen and advanced on a sacrifice. Pinch-hitter Travis Shaw then hit a slow grounder to third and reached on an infield single when Yandy Diaz's off-balance throw bounced and first baseman Ji-Man Choi couldn't corral it cleanly into his chest.

Hernández followed with his game-winning fly to left field.

Two bad bounces for the Rays and their season was over.

Facing elimination in a scoreless game in the third inning, Cash went to 24-year-old rookie Shane McClanahan to enter in relief on...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Rays-remarkable-season-comes-to-sudden-end-at-16526050.php