Aranda’s friend earns Jays the AL East title: Rays 4, Jays 13

Today the Rays did no favors to the Yankees, who had to play on the sidelines, impotently wishing for a miracle that Ian Seymour and the Rays bullpen would not come close to granting. Very early on, this game was decided by two childhood friends from Mexico.

The Rays got the game’s first lead with an RBI single in the 1st by Jonathan Aranda. Aranda, in the 3 games back from his unlucky injury on the final day of July that cost him his last two months, had 4 hits, 2 HRs, and 5 RBIs. What could have been had Aranda stayed healthy, had the umpires not foolishly kept the game going in the pouring rain, had Caminero just put the grounder in his pocket? We’ll never know for this year, but what we do know is that Aranda showed a ton of resolve to come all the way back and get one last series in at the end of the year to give a fittingly triumphant conclusion to his breakout campaign.

But the day belonged to the Jays, and Aranda’s good friend and countryman, Alejandro Kirk.

In the 1st inning, after the Rays jumped off to the early lead, Kirk put the exclamation mark on the response with a grand slam off of Ian Seymour.

Aranda would respond back and bring the Rays a bit closer with a 2 RBI single in the 3rd.

After Jake Mangum drove in another run with 2-out, the Rays would make the Canadian fans sweat just a bit as the lead narrowed to 5-4.

Unfortunately, the 2025 Rays bullpen were the eater of joy and goodness the entire season and they did just that today. The pen would take over the final 4.2 IP and surrender 8 hits, 2 BBs, and 7 ERs (with each giving up a HR apiece).

The game was put into the icebox with Kirk delivering another big fly, this time tagging Uceta.

With that 2nd HR, the Jays would expand their lead to 8-4 and would not look back. Kevin Kelly concluded his brutal season with 4 total earned runs himself to put the Jays into blowout territory and hurt the Rays run differential right at the end.

With this loss in the finale the Rays will end their season at 77 wins and 85 losses. Just the 3rd time since 2008 that they have finished with under 80 wins.

While this year was nothing short of supremely disappointing, it’s important that the context in which we view that disappointment. The end goal remains, a new era is dawning, but as we close the book on the Sternberg era the last two years of disappointment being slightly below .500 after years and years of postseason trips and winning teams do give us an earned sense of malaise.

We shouldn’t be satisfied with merely being in hunt. The Devil Rays era ended and soon a winner was brought to Tampa Bay. Reaching .500, making the postseason, these were huge accomplishments after years wandering in the woods. But that is no longer enough, nor should it be. The bar has been raised, and that’s the bar that has been set for Patrick Zalupski and the new ownership group.

It’s time for a new era.