Rays Clinch 1st AL East Title Since 2010 with Win vs. Mets

For the third time in franchise history, the Tampa Bay Rays are American League East champions.

The Rays clinched a division title thanks to their 8-5 victory over the New York Mets on Wednesday.

Entering the 2020 season, the East was shaping up to be a two-horse race between Tampa Bay and the New York Yankees. The Yankees won the division by seven games in 2019, and the second-place Rays finished 12 games up on the third-place Boston Red Sox.

The Red Sox signaled their priorities for 2020 when they traded David Price and Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles, meanwhile, were still below the level necessary to contend for an AL East crown.

For the Rays, a first-place finish won't carry the same kind of benefits it usually would thanks to a variety of circumstances. The COVID-19 pandemic means home-field advantage doesn't count for as much without fans in stadiums. Playoff expansion also presents an extra round for teams to navigate. Tampa Bay is projected to match up with the eighth-seeded Blue Jays in the wild-card series.

Tampa Bay might be one of the teams helped most by MLB's playoff schedule, which doesn't include any days off for the first three rounds.

The Rays can go four-deep with their starting rotation (Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, Ryan Yarbrough and Charlie Morton) before turning things over to one MLB's best bullpens.

Their relievers entered Wednesday collectively fourth in ERA (3.44) and FIP (3.66), per FanGraphs. They also threw the second-most innings (251.1), which highlights how many solid options manager Kevin Cash has at his disposal.

Pitching depth will likely prove even more invaluable this postseason, and it's an area in which the Rays excel.

Depending on how far the Rays advance this October, it could be a big sports year for the Tampa/St. Petersburg region. The Tampa Bay Lightning are in the Stanley Cup Final against the Dallas Stars, while the Tampa Bay Buccaneers set their sights on a Super Bowl after signing Tom Brady.