The Rays were smashed in five games as the Brewers won their first World Series, and Taylor Walls didn’t want to hear about levels.
After Game 4’s extra-inning victory to avoid the sweep, Walls was asked by The Athletic reporter Ken Rosenthal: “Was it important to win one just to show you’re on this level?”
Walls did not like the framing of that question.
“No,” Walls quickly responded after the 12-inning 4-3 win on Tuesday. “I think that’s pretty disrespectful, honestly. We’re a team that’s capable of winning four.”
Rosenthal quickly apologized for the question, saying, “Sorry for the wording,” in the locker room.
“No team wants to get swept, but at the end of the day, we think we can win the whole thing,” Walls said. “So whether it starts with us down 0-3 and winning four in a row, or whether it started winning the first one or the second one, we have full confidence that we can do it.”
The Rays did not pull off the impossible of coming back from down 3-0, a feat only completed by the 2004 Red Sox against the Yankees in the ALCS.
Tampa Bay had a tough time scoring runs in the series, putting up only 11 runs in five games as their bats went quiet and looked largely overmatched with weak contact.
Walls, who isn’t exactly a bopper in his own right as a defense-first player to begin with, hit just .103 in the postseason with four hits in 39 at-bats.
Among the most bizarre decisions came from Rays manager Kevin Cash, who elected to rest his ace Drew Rasmussen in Game 1 and held him for Game 2.
Rasmussen then had to pitch on short rest in a do-or-die Game 5 and lasted only four innings.
The Rays still had a successful season by all standards, even if Walls didn’t want to hear the underdog noise from reporters, considering they were able to make the World Series after coming into the year with some expecting them to be a lesser team in the AL East.
