From the Rays' perspective, the AL Championship Series has been a bit tough to watch.
Pre-/post-game radio host Neil Solondz made his thoughts known, tweeting that he preferred a streaming feed of the Arizona Fall League all-star game to Saturday's ALCS opener, and he wasn't the only one who couldn't bear to tune in.
There's the Astros, the team that beat the Rays in the division series and sent them home for the winter.
And there's the Yankees, the team that beat the Rays out for the AL East title, after beating them 12 times during the season to make their life tougher.
But fret no more.
You now have a clear choice on what team to root for in the World Series _ the Nationals.
Go all in on the Curly W _ hint: that's the description of their logo they talk about a lot _ and you don't have to sweat out the next couple nights of the ALCS, deciding which team you dislike the least, and just look ahead to Tuesday's Series opener.
Here's five reasons why:
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They're easy to like
They've got some familiar faces, led by manager Davey Martinez, which we'll get back to in a minute. They were written off after a slow start, 19-31 through May 23 and with a 0.1 chance of winning the pennant. They, like the Rays, got into the playoffs as a wild-card, and shocked the top-seeded Dodgers. They staged some dramatic comebacks, trailing the Brewers by two in the eighth inning of the wild-card game and the Dodgers by two in the eighth of NLDS Game 5. They do things differently (and certainly different than the Rays) by riding a stable of veteran starting pitchers as deep as they can into games. They have Max Scherzer and his unmatched intensity. They exorcised past postseason failures. They're fresh faces in the October spotlight, including the freshest, 20-year-old Juan Soto, known as Childish Bambino.
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