The Rays didn’t just lock up the American League East. They also set themselves up with the kind of postseason edge every team wants and very few can truly claim: home-field advantage all the way through the AL side of the bracket.
That matters even more in Tampa Bay’s case because Tropicana Field has been brutal for opponents. Bob Nightengale of USA Today put it plainly: "Tropicana Field is a house of horrors to visiting teams, with the Rays going 55-26 at home this season, and will have home-field advantage throughout the AL postseason."
Tampa Bay enters the regular-season finale on the road against the Philadelphia Phillies at 98-63, but the damage was already done at home. The Rays finished 2026 with a 55-26 mark at Tropicana Field, and that kind of consistency is exactly what powered their run to the top of the division over the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.
Across all of Major League Baseball, only one team can really stack up with Tampa Bay’s home work: the Milwaukee Brewers. They’re 54-25 at home with one game left Sunday against the St. Louis Cardinals, good for a 68.4 winning percentage at home, just ahead of the Rays’ 67.9%.
The next best home records belong to the Atlanta Braves at 52-29, which translates to a 64.2% winning percentage. In the American League, the closest challengers are the Chicago White Sox at 47-33 and the Yankees at 46-34.
So while the Rays have already secured the division crown and the first-round bye, the bigger postseason story may be what comes next: a dangerous home setting that gives them a real edge in the ALDS, whether the opponent turns out to be the Red Sox or the Yankees.
In Other News...
Rays Earned The October Setup Fans Have Been Waiting On
The Rays closed the regular season at 98-64 and walked away with the American Leagues best record, a finish that puts them in the cleanest possible October position. Even after dropping their final game to the Phillies, Tampa Bay secured the No. 1 seed in the AL bracket and earned a path that keeps the focus right where it should be heading into the postseason at Tropicana Field.
Now the waiting begins. Tampa Bay opens the American League Division Series on Saturday against the winner of the Wild Card Series between the Yankees and Red Sox, giving the Rays a few days to reset while the rest of the bracket sorts itself out. For a club that spent six months building toward this, the setup is exactly what it wanted, even if the opponent still has one more round to reveal itself. [Read more 🡒]
Rays Are Suddenly Facing Their Biggest October Test Yet
The Rays have spent enough recent Octobers proving they belong in the postseason conversation, and now they find themselves back in the mix of preseason chatter as theScores editors sort through their 2026 playoff predictions. Alongside familiar heavyweights like the Yankees, Brewers and Dodgers, Tampa Bay is getting attention for the consistency and edge that have made it one of the more reliable playoff bets in the league, even as those kinds of projections always come with a healthy dose of uncertainty.
Still, the real intrigue around the Rays is how much of this confidence rests on what theyve already shown versus what they still have to prove when the games get tighter. The regular season can make a strong case, and recent playoff history helps explain why evaluators keep circling Tampa Bay, but October has a way of turning those comfortable assumptions into something far less certain. [Read more 🡒]