Rays proud of unexpected season despite World Series loss - ESPN

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Sadness, as expected, tinted the home clubhouse at Tropicana Field after midnight Thursday morning. The Tampa Bay Rays were still coming to terms with losing the World Series to the Milwaukee Brewers in five games. An eight-plus-month journey that started with a celebrated return to their home ballpark and that was spent defying expectations and becoming as tight-knit as a professional ballclub can become was suddenly over with a 4-1 loss Wednesday.

There was heartache. There were tears. But, above all, there was pride.

«I'm really just proud,» Rays All-Star closer Bryan Baker said. «I'm just proud to be part of this group.»

Baker was one of seven Rays pitchers who took the mound with the season on the line Wednesday. He tossed a scoreless eighth inning after logging two frames — something he hadn't done all year — in Tampa Bay's 12-inning win Tuesday to keep its season alive. He was part of a pitching plan Rays brass scrambled together after Nick Martinez, their scheduled Game 5 starter, was needed for two innings out of the bullpen in Game 4.

It launched with Drew Rasmussen, the club's ace, taking the mound on three days' rest for the first time in his career as a full-fledged starter. Rasmussen — after throwing 89 pitches over 3⅔ innings in Game 2 on Saturday — was asked after Game 4 whether he was willing to make the start. He accepted the challenge. Rays manager Kevin Cash told Rasmussen, who has undergone three major elbow surgeries in the past decade, there would be strict limitations. Four innings or 60 pitches, whichever came first.

«This organization, man, it's the best,» Rasmussen said. «They always look out for me. They were doing their best to protect me, and unfortunately, their