After ending the regular season with the second best record in the league, the Tampa Bay Rays now look like a lackadaisical team on the brink of elimination. SLAP!

Manhandled by the Texas Rangers, the Rays and are just 9 innings away from an early exit, down two games to none in their ALDS. How ’bout we throw in a backhander too. . .SLAP!!

With their season suddenly on the brink and their fan base long gone; the Tampa Bay Rays are the recipients of the Bitch-Slap-of-the-Week.

How about a couple for their fans too, you know the ones who barely have the energy to jump on the bandwagon of a 96-win team that won the AL East title.

Truth be told, no one should have expected any different from this team… or this area.

The Rays went 5-5 in their last 10 regular season games and were 13-14 in the month of September. Needless to say, that’s not exactly the best way to carry momentum into the playoffs. And I’m sure the call for a ‘plaided out ballpark’ didn’t help either.

It’s one thing to ask your fans to ‘white out’ the stadium to intimidate your opponent, but it’s quite another to ask them to support their team by wearing plaid. That’s about the least intimidating pattern you can pick, besides polka dots.

But Joe Maddon and his plaid dreams aren’t the only ones at fault here; the Rays fans deserve some of the blame as well. Instead of rooting for their team and rallying behind home-field advantage, the Rays ‘fans’ were too busy making Kitty DJ videos (watch below), playing shuffleboard and following Dancing with the Stars.

As if it’s not humiliating enough for these players to call Tropicana Field home, they now don’t even have the support of their own city. Any hope of a bandwagon jump was derailed after the Rays got shut out on Thursday. And now that the Buccaneers have a winning record (2-1), there is no need for Tampa Bay fans to watch baseball anymore. And I completely understand.

Who honestly wants to watch a team that was on the losing end of two no-hitters this year, one of which being a perfect game? I don’t care what your record is, if that happens to you twice in one season, then your fate has already been determined.

And just so we’re all clear on this, throwing a no-hitter like Garza did does not cancel out being the victim of one.

The way I see it, the Rays only have two options in order make this post-season memorable. They can either A) Start hitting the ball and have an epic comeback or B) Wear plaid uniforms for the rest of the series and bunt during every at-bat. Other than that, there is really no hope for this team.

Personally, I would love to see option B run its course. I know it’s a long shot, but anything is possible when you believe.

Used with permission of the author.

Logan Rhoades is a Los Angeles-based writer and contributor to Sports Climax. With an extensive knowledge of ESPN topics and celebrity gossip, he is known for mixing sports and pop culture to entertain his readers. Check out his “Skip to My Logan” blog and Follow him on Twitter @loganrhoades.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

The year of the pitcher continued and Matt Garza became the fifth pitcher to throw a no-hitter this year in the Tampa

Matt Garza no-no

Bay Rays 5-0 win over the Detroit Tigers. It was actually the sixth no-no if you count the Jim Joyce debacle.

Although the final score was 5-0, the majority of the game was a pitchers’ duel. Garza’s opponent, Max Scherzer threw 5-plus innings of no-hit ball before the wheels came off in the sixth.

After Kelly Shoppach struck out to begin the 6^th inning, the Rays loaded the bases on two walks and a catcher’s interference call. Scherzer then struck out Carlos Pena, and looked like he might be able to escape the jam and continue to pursue his no-hitter.

That vision was erased when ex-Tiger Matt Joyce drilled a 3-2 pitch over the right field wall to give the Rays a 4-0 lead. One hit and four runs. After Joyce emptied the bases and broke up Scherzer’s no-no, all the attention turned to Garza, who had allowed just one base runner, a walk to Boesch in the second inning.

After retiring the side in both the seventh and eighth innings, Garza returned for the ninth already having thrown 107 pitches. It took Garza six pitches to retire Don Kelly for the first out of the inning. He then struck out Gerald Laird on four pitches, putting him in position to make history and pitch the first no-hitter in Tampa Rays history.

Pinch hitter Ramon Santiago made contact on a 1-1 pitch from Garza, but it was a harmless fly ball to right field, which Ben Zobrist put away to seal the game.

Garza was mobbed by teammates on the mound, and now will have his name forever etched in baseball history. His final pitching line was 9 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K, 120 pitches.

The no-hitter comes at a great time for Garza and the Rays, who had both cooled after a tremendous start to the year.

The Rays were in first place early in the year, and looked like the best team in baseball for a while. They currently trail the Yankees by three games, and could use this to build momentum in the near future.

Garza also started off the year well, holding down a 3.08 ERA through the month of May. Since the start of June however, Garza had a 5-1 record which hid his terrible 6.60 ERA.

Here are some interesting tidbits on Garza’s no-hitter:

 This was the first no-hitter in Rays history, leaving the San Diego Padres and New York Mets as the only teams left without a no-hitter . . .

The five no-hitters thrown so far this year are the most since 1991 . . .

Garza previously threw a one-hitter in 2008 . . . 

The Rays have been involved in three of the no-hitters this year, as they were previously no-hit by Dallas Braden (OAK) and Edwin Jackson (ARZ) . . .

Garza faced the minimum 27 batters . . .

Used with permission of the author.

 Along with contributing to Sports Climax, Brett Kettyle is the Atlanta Braves Community Leader on Bleacher Report and maintains a Braves column for MTR Media. Follow Brett on Twitter.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC