From Wander to the World: Top 24 moments in Rays history – Tampa Bay Times

Though the Rays are heading into their 25th season, they plan to wait until 2023 to celebrate their silver anniversary. But we couldnt wait to look back, updating our list of the greatest moments in franchise history.

Maybe time will prove otherwise, but the date Wander Franco made his big-league debut, at age 20, after two years as the games top prospect, seems like something worth commemorating. Maybe one day from Cooperstown. Plus, five months later the Rays signed him to an 11-year, $182 million contract.

Making it back for a cameo in the regular-season finale after being sidelined since July 22, Yandy Diaz made quite an impact in the 2019 AL wild-card game at Oakland. He homered his first two times up to lead the Rays to a 5-1 win in their first postseason appearance in six years.

It had become a matter of when, not if, but seeing Evan Longoria cradle a foul popup by the Twins Joe Mauer against the stands behind third base and clinch the Rays first playoff berth was breathtaking, especially for those who had been with the franchise through the dark days. The party they had in the clubhouse afterward was pretty good, too.

The significance wasnt immediately obvious, but minor-leaguer Elliot Johnson crashing into Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli in the ninth inning of a spring game set the stage for a season-long effort to show that the Rays were no longer going to be pushed around.

Carl Crawford headlined the Rays large contingent five players, manager Joe Maddon and the full coaching staff at the 2009 All-Star Game by earning MVP honors, primarily for a spectacular home-run-robbing catch. (The next year was pretty cool, too, as three Rays were in the AL All-Star lineup, with David Price on the mound, Evan Longoria at third and Crawford in left.)

After spending most of eight seasons as one of the games least successful and worst-run franchises, the Rays were under new management. The Stuart Sternberg-led group took over and promised to do things differently and better. A re-branding and a name-shortening two years later were well received, and they have made the playoffs seven times in the last 14 years.

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Triple-A callup Dan Johnson was supposed to be in the starting lineup at Fenway Park, but flight delays from Scranton, Pa., delayed him enough that manager Joe Maddon had to change plans. Serendipitously, Johnson was then available to pinch hit in the ninth and delivered a tying homer off Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon as the Rays went on to win a game that kept them from dropping out of first place.

The Rays had to win on the final day of the season in Toronto for the right to fly to Texas for a Game 163 playoff with the Rangers to reach the playoffs for the fourth time in six seasons. Their two biggest stars stepped up in a 5-2 win in the 14th tiebreaker game in MLB history. Evan Longoria hit a two-run homer and David Price pitched a complete game, punctuating the final out by yelling, Thats what Im talking about.

Losing to the last-place Tigers wouldnt be cause for celebration, but the Rays came back to Comerica Park later that night, after the Red Soxs rain-delayed loss to the Yankees was complete, and popped bottles to enjoy winning the first of what now is four American League East championships.

All Randy Arozarena did in Game 7 of the 2020 ALCS against the Astros was hit a two-run homer in the first inning to give the Rays a lead they wouldnt relinquish in winning their second AL pennant. What Arozarena did for the week was hit .321 with four homers and six RBIs to win the ALCS MVP award, the first rookie position player to do so. And that was all part of his record-smashing month, when he hit .377 with a record 10 homers and 14 RBIs for the 20-game postseason.

After parting ways with disgruntled Joe Maddon, the Rays took what seemed like a chance in hiring as their next manager, Kevin Cash, the Indians bullpen coach known for his baseball savvy and mediocre playing career. Cash has led the Rays to three consecutive playoff berths including back-to-back AL East titles and a second trip to the World Series and became the first to win back-to-back AL manager of the year awards.

After parting ways with disgruntled Lou Piniella, the Rays took what seemed like a chance in hiring as their next manager Joe Maddon, the Angels bench coach known for his funky glasses and creative thinking. The move turned out to be brilliant. Maddon led the Rays to four playoff appearances in six years and won two AL manager of the year awards.

Blake Snell was in the minority, believing he could do great things after a miserable 2017 season in which he was sent down twice. He was most definitely right, winning 21 games losing five and posting a sterling 1.89 ERA and the second Cy Young Award in franchise history.

Winning 20 games was a big deal for the Rays David Price in the 2012 season. A bigger one came when he was voted winner of the American League Cy Young award, the most prestigious individual honor won by a Tampa Bay player to this day.

Having been on the wrong end of four no-hitters at the time, the Rays finally got to do the celebrating as Matt Garza blanked the Tigers, walking one in a 120-pitch gem.

Evan Longorias Game 162, 12th-inning homer understandably is the moment recorded in history, but Dan Johnson made it all possible three innings earlier. Down to his and the Rays last strike against the Yankees, Johnson stunned the crowd with a liner that tucked just inside the rightfield pole for a tying homer, setting the stage for the dramatic ending that sent the Rays to the playoffs thanks to Boston also losing at Baltimore that night.

The Rays made it back to the World Series a second time, but there was little pomp and extremely odd circumstance given the pandemic that delayed and cut short the season. The Rays clinched the pennant by surviving a seven-games-in-seven-days ALCS against the Astros played in San Diego, then flew to Arlington, Texas, to take on the Dodgers in the neutral site World Series.

Scott Kazmirs first-pitch strike was one of the few highlights in the 3-2 loss to the Phillies in the World Series opener, but the reality was that there was a real, live World Series game being played in St. Petersburg. And that alone was pretty amazing.

Mike Brosseau didnt want to call it revenge, which was fine because everyone else did it for him. Having nearly been hit in the head in by a 101-mph Aroldis Chapman fastball in a Sept. 1 game at Yankee Stadium, the Rays infielder struck back at a most dramatic time. Facing Chapman in the eighth inning of the fifth and deciding game of the 2020 ALDS, batting with the score tied and one out, battling back from an 0-2 count and through 10 pitches, Brosseau homered to send the Rays to the next round and the Yankees home. Hands down the greatest moment Ive been a part of in baseball, Rays manager Kevin Cash said.

Tampa product Wade Boggs came home to make history, and that he did, reaching 3,000 hits in dramatic fashion. He became the first of the then-22 players to reach the milestone with a home run. Boggs made an emotional trip around the bases, saluting his mother, who was killed in a 1986 car accident, then dropping to his knees and kissing home plate.

Twenty years of trying to get a team in Tampa Bay and three years of building the franchise under managing general partner Vince Naimoli culminated with a fastball from Wilson Alvarez to Detroits Brian Hunter low and inside, but who cared to the delight of a roaring sellout crowd of 45,369 at Tropicana Field.

The Rays were the winners in one of the wildest endings to a World Series game after trailing 7-6 with two outs in the ninth, and two on. They got a single from Seminole native Brett Phillips who hadnt had an at-bat in nearly three weeks or a hit in a month to score the tying run, then an error by Dodgers centerfielder Chris Taylor that allowed Randy Arozarena, who fell down after rounding third, to get back up and slide home safely head-first, banging the plate with his hand.

Evan Longoria hit the modern-day shot heard round the world, his 12th-inning homer capping a wild comeback from a 7-0 deficit as the Rays not only beat the Yankees but clinched the AL wild-card playoff berth. Longoria joined Bobby Thomson of the 1951 Giants as the only players to hit a walkoff homer in the final regular-season game to put his team in the playoffs.

David Price threw the pitch, Bostons Jed Lowrie hit the ground ball, Akinori Iwamura made the pickup and raced to step on second base and the Rays the Tampa Bay Rays won the American League pennant and were going to the World Series. This improbable season, as radio broadcaster Dave Wills screamed, did indeed have another chapter.

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From Wander to the World: Top 24 moments in Rays history - Tampa Bay Times