Sunday, September 29. Game 162. Rays lose another, but it doesn't matter.

Rays 3, Blue Jays 8

Final Record:  96-66.  30 games over .500.

Attendance:  25,738.  Rogers Centre.

If Saturday's game was lackluster, Sunday's was lackadaisical, a half-hearted affair.  Maybe on Saturday afternoon the players were still suffering the aftereffects of the champagne and beer party on Friday that celebrated their clinching a place in the playoffs.  Maybe on Sunday they were thinking ahead to Oakland this coming Wednesday.  Either way, both games were sub-par for this very good, if unpredictable, Tampa Bay Rays team.

Blake Snell seemed to take a step backward in his rehab work when he gave up three hits, two walks, and two runs in two and a third innings.  He did strike out four, and he maintained after the game that he was happy with the outing, especially what he saw as his improved curve ball.  "I just feel I'm going to get better and better," he told the press, "so yeah, it's encouraging."

Yonny Chirinos, who is also working his way back to reliable form after a long stretch on the IL, was even worse, giving up four hits and four runs in two and two-thirds.  Anthony Banda and Jose De Leon, both in post-Tommy John mode, worked an inning each, Banda giving up three hits and two runs in his inning, while De Leon struck out the side in the eighth.  The game seemed more like a spring training exercise than a real contest.

On the offensive side, it was good to see Ji-Man Choi return after fouling a ball off his foot a couple of nights back and missing the first two games of the final series against the Blue Jays.  He doubled and homered.  A healthy Choi is a good sign for the Oakland game on Wednesday.

And it was also good to see Yandy Diaz, activated for the last game of the season after missing two months with a fractured foot bone.  He was the DH and hit leadoff.  He hit the ball in typically hard Diaz fashion, both lineouts, but very encouraging.

The Rays finished with the best team ERA, .365, in the AL, narrowly edging out the Houston Astros, who finished at .366, according to a report in the Tampa Bay Times.

One final note:  Traitor Joe Maddon was fired by the Chicago Cubs.