'That's who we are': Rays won't ease up on basepaths despite Game 1 miscues

The Tampa Bay Rays have no plans to tone down their aggressive baserunning despite two costly mistakes in Friday's World Series Game 1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, insisting the approach is core to their identity.

"That's us," left fielder Chandler Simpson told ESPN after the defeat. "We can't run away from that because that's who we are. Just because we got stopped a couple of times..." The Rays' brand of baseball - constant pressure on opponents - backfired in Milwaukee, but it is also the style that carried Tampa Bay to its third World Series.

The first blunder came in the fifth inning, when Victor Mesa Jr., on base after a leadoff single off Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski, tried to steal third with two outs and Yandy Diaz batting. Mesa broke on an 0-2, 103 mph fastball, and catcher William Contreras threw him out to end the inning. "Easy to say now, but it was not the best move," Mesa admitted.

The second miscue followed an inning later: after Jonathan Aranda's one-out single off reliever Abner Uribe, Simpson failed to check his swing on a slider that would have been ball four, striking out with the Rays' best hitter, Junior Caminero, on deck. Manager Kevin Cash took the blame: "That's on me ultimately," he said, citing his trust in Simpson to put the ball in play.

It was the first time Tampa Bay had been thrown out on the bases all postseason. The Rays did manage two steals in the ninth, when pinch runner Jorge Mateo and Simpson pulled off a double steal to set up Caminero with one out.