(via Tampa Bay Rays Communications) - With a doubleheader sweep over the Baltimore Orioles today at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the Tampa Bay Rays have clinched a berth in Major League Baseball’s postseason for a second consecutive season. The Rays are the third team to clinch a trip to the 2020 postseason, following the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox. They currently lead the American League East by 3.5 games over the second-place New York Yankees, and are attempting to win their third AL East title (2010, 2008).
This will be the sixth postseason trip in franchise history, all coming in 13 seasons of the Rays era (since 2008). The Rays are one of three clubs in baseball history to reach the postseason at least six times in their first 23 seasons of existence, along with the Kansas City Royals (seven) and Arizona Diamondbacks (six, pursuing seven).
On July 23, MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) jointly announced that the 2020 postseason will expand to 16 teams, beginning with eight best-of-three Wild Card Series preceding the Division Series. All four American League Wild Card Series will be played on three consecutive days—Tuesday, September 29, Wednesday, September 30 and Thursday, October 1 (if necessary)—at the home ballpark of the team with the higher seed. If the Rays finish the season as one of the AL’s top four seeds—composed of the three division winners and the second-place team with the best winning percentage—they would host their Wild Card Series games at Tropicana Field. Wild Card Series games will be exclusively televised by either ESPN or TBS. Game times will be announced at a later date.
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