Deep breaths. Here we go.
When the Rays failed themselves into the third Wild Card spot, I was annoyed at what felt like gamesmanship to avoid a tough slate of traveling to Toronto and then having to face a well-rested Houston team. But the Rays then failed themselves right out of the playoffs, carrying over their weak offensive performance into a two-game sweep at the hands of the Guardians, while the Mariners went to Toronto and put up the most exciting Wild Card game of the whole weekend—no disrespect to the specter of umpires tenderly massaging Joe Musgrove’s ear, en route to a two-game sweep that it’s fair to say no one in the baseball world, save our beating little Northwest-green heart of the country over here, saw coming.