While the Baltimore Orioles continued preparations for their first postseason series in nine years, the other two playoff qualifiers from the AL East, a division known to some as the “AL Beast” went out with a whimper amidst the duo of sloppy play and questionable decision making.

The Rays won 13 games in a row to start this season, finished with the second-best record in the AL. Then they saw their postseason experience last five hours and 20 minutes while getting outscored 11-1 to the Texas Rangers, a team that was part of an odd social media debate about how to celebrate clinching a playoff berth.

Shortly after the Rays’ elimination came down amidst a series of debate about low attendance that did not mention things like the high cost of showing up to these games, the Blue Jays went down with a 2-0 loss at Minnesota where the subject of the day was “Why did Jose Berrios” get pulled after allowing three hits and facing 12 batters while throwing only 47 pitches in a one-run game.

The Rays were hardly impressive, though slightly better at the plate than last year’s 24 innings in Cleveland. They were able to up their hit total from 13 to 14 but also committed five errors after finishing eighth in baseball with 75 errors and similar in the rankings with a .987 fielding percentage.

The shutdown at the plate occurred after the Rays set records in homers and 860 runs scored did virtually nothing without facing former Mets Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom. Instead, they achieved little against former Yankees Jordan Montgomery and Nathan Eovaldi, proving that someone with a Yankee connection does not always struggle against the Rays.

In the past four years, the Rays have won 329 regular-season games thanks to a dynamic offense and effective pitching but when it comes to recent postseason outcomes, the operation seems to stall.

Since the infamous decision to remove Blake Snell after 72 pitches in Game 6 of the 2020 World Series, the Rays are 1-7 in the postseason. While they produced sufficient amount of hits in three games against the Red Sox two years ago, they could not get it done in the clutch, resulting in two walk off losses and this time and last year, they barely produced anything sufficient enough to be described as a rally.

The Rays were also playing without Brandon Lowe due to a knee injury that likely would have cost him the postseason if their October reached the World Series and also missing Wander Franco due to his legal issues.

Regardless of who is missing, the Rays in recent years are the latest of teams to be good during the six-month marathon only to fizzle in October.

“I don't know if it's a fluke or not,” manager Kevin Cash told reporters. “I think the guys that we had out there were able to do better than what we did today. We'd like to continue playing, but I can't put my finger on one specific thing why we've been eliminated pretty quickly.”

Quickly describes things for the Blue Jays, who joined the Oakland Athletics are the last two teams to lose a postseason series to the Twins. Except those two series clinchers occurred about 6,000 days apart spanning about 21 years – a period of time so lengthy David Ortiz was still playing for the Twins and the Metrodome was seven years away from hosting its final game.

In between came an 18-game losing streak highlighted by 12 losses to the Yankees, who this year likely would have played to the end just to reach this round and maybe were due to the Twins.

Instead, the Blue Jays were the ones due to lose to the Twins and that made it six straight playoff losses in the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. era. Guerrero’s decision to lean off second base in a 2-0 game proved costly when Sonny Gray (yet another former Yankee) easily picked him off.

Of course, Guerrero’s decision on the bases was only the second-worst of the Toronto decisions. The infamous move occurred after Berrios opened the fourth with a free pass to his 13th hitter. Once that happened out came manager John Schneider not for a consultation but to remove him from the game.

It is not official that the move was predetermined because the Blue Jays did not email or post a press release on social media reading: “Berrios to pulled after 47 pitches”. It just seemed to be scripted because why else would such a move be made in an elimination game and the answers did not provide official clarity only a hint of the mindset.

While there is some number justification with a .450 slugging percentage to lefties Berrios permitted with a runner on during the regular season, the lack of trust was stunning. The move occurred after he walked Royce Lewis on a full count instead of giving him a pitch to hit a day after Kevin Gausman allowed two homers to him. It seemed the mindset with Berrios was a better chance of retiring Max Kepler.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Berríos told reporters. “Other than that, I can’t control that. Like I said, I did my best for those first 12 batters.”

And it is not as if the best option was emerging from the bullpen. Instead it was left-hander Yusei Kikuchi, someone with 12 career relief appearances and only because of his struggles in 2022 and allowing a RBI single to Carlos Correa proved costly because like the Rays the Blue Jays forgot to hit effectively.

“Obviously, everybody was surprised,” Guerrero Jr. told reporters through a club interpreter. “Everybody was surprised with the decision, but there are things you cannot control. You can ask yourself many times, but it’s not our decision. We were surprised.”

And because of the move that surprised their own clubhouse, the Blue Jays and Rays are joined in the American League’s elimination club of teams who earned the privilege to watch the postseason on television.

“He had electric stuff,” Schneider said. “Tough to take him out. But I think with the way they’re constructed you want to utilize your whole roster. It didn’t work out."