Champions, emphatically...
The team that struggled to win 90 games, the team that couldn't even get home field for a Wild Card series, the 2032 Tampa Bay Rays, World Champions. I'm not sure I've seen a team struggle to score runs all season (10th in the AL) make like the 1927 Yankees in the postseason but that's what they did, routing the Cubs 7-0 to win it all in 5 games, and scoring 37 runs in the process.
Isaac Cedillos had been the only Rays regular not to homer this postseason and he finally got in on the act by belting a 2-run shot in the 2nd off Taj Bradley who was in the Tampa Bay rotation last year.
Nelson Haro then went back-to-back with Cedillos and added a 2-run homer in the 6th to make the rubble bounce as part of a 4-hit day (that could have been 5 had he not be robbed on a line drive in the 8th). Meanwhile the Cubs didn't put up much of a fight at the plate as
Donye Evans (effectively wild with 6 walks in 5 innings) and three relievers combined on a 1-hit shutout. So here they are - champs for the fourth time in team history and the first in 5 years after having won 3 out of 4. But they're truly the unlikeliest of the bunch.
(Going back I noticed that I never did the usual full stats recap after the regular season ended. I'll do that in the next post along with a postseason stat recap, if for no other reason to compare and contrast the regular season numbers with those from the playoffs.)