Rays Tank: The arc of the season bends toward last place

Welcome to the first post-elimination Rays Tank, where the wild cards and tamed and the playoffs are -- wait, what's that? The Rays have not technically been eliminated yet? Are...are you kidding me? How is that possible? So now I have to shoehorn my clips into some fake storyline? You know, instead of the fake storyline I had planned? How is that fair?

Oh well, in the spirit of this season, let's go with fleeting hope and short-lived successes. Ladies, gents, and garfooses, put your hands together for September 21st:

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This is James Shields from 2012, notching the Rays 1,267th strikeout of the season, a new American League record.

The Rays would hold the record for a whole year, until the Tigers surpassed in 2013. The Tigers reign also lasted just a year, when both the Indians and the Rays topped it in 2014. Will anybody break the record this year? As of Sunday, Cleveland was about 150 Ks away with 15 games to play. So, maybe?

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Our next clip should resonate with you hockey fans out there. Remember when the Lightning hired Guy Boucher? This is him, wrist-shooting out the first pitch to that bum, Steven Vogt.

The innovative Boucher had a great start to his coaching career, leading the Bolts to a second place Southeast Division finish and an unlikely run to the Conference Finals in his first year. Then the wheels fell off. A fall from grace reminiscent of your 2015 Rays.

And whatever happened to that Vogt guy? Man, was he terrible.

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Of course, this list would not be complete without everybody's favorite One Hit Wonder, Ben Zobrist.

Talk about your terrible routes!

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Had enough of that? Yeah, me too. So here's Austin Romine catching a bee.

Go Rays. Link dump!

• Go fill out the Fans Scouting Report for the Rays! So far there's only two entries, and one of them is me.
• Spencer Bingol of Beyond the Box Score breaks down Erasmo Ramirez.
• Chris Archer is nominated for some pitching award that is not the Cy Young, but which is probably more-likely to go to the best pitcher.
• From Topkin, Jake Odorizzi is frustrated with himself, plus injury updates on Jake McGee, Curt Casali, Xavier Cedeno, and Brian Anderson.
• So Jung-Ho Kang got hurt when he was slid into while attempting to turn a double play. How might the rule change to protect players? This seems pretty easy to me. Calling both runners out if the lead runner leaves the baseline on a force play isn't complicated at all. They make that call at first base, make it at second. Allowing the slide way wide of the bag might be a "hard baseball play" but it's also weird.