ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Tampa Bay (98-64, .605, 1st AL East, 1st AL, 3rd MLB) is idle while the Phillies face the Braves, White Sox take on the Astros, Red Sox visit the Yankees, and Cubs meet the Padres with game two match-ups in the wild card round.
Atlanta, the Chicago White Sox, New York, and San Diego each have 1-0 leads in their respective best-of-three wild card match-ups.
The Rays do not play until 6:30 PM on Saturday, October 3rd, at Tropicana Field in game one of their side of the A.L. Division Series.
Today is the 27th time this season the Rays will be off since the season opener and the second time the off-day has come on a Wednesday (July 15th, the day following the All-Star Game). Tampa Bay also had eight Mondays off, two Tuesdays (July 14th for the All-Star Game in Philadelphia and yesterday), one Friday (the first, on March 27th), and fourteen Thursdays off. There will be two more days off for the Rays before the American League divisional round against the winner of the Boston/New York wild card series.
Last year, between games one and 162, the Rays had 23 days off, which included the ones that come as part of the All-Star Game break. This season, there were 24 scheduled days off, which did not include rain delays or postponements or days off between the regular season and postseason or between postseason games.
The Rays won the A.L. East title and earned the best record in the American League in 2026.
