How does a hot team with the best record in baseball lose two games to a team that struggles to hang around .500 in a weak division?

They get on a four-hour flight.

Two more winnable games lost in Oakland and the Rays’ all-time record at Whichver-Tech-Company-Currently-Owns-the-Naming-Rights-to-Oakland-Alameda-County Coliseum (which will henceforth be known as WTCCOTNRTOAC Coliseum) is now 16-43 (and it is only that good because the Rays are 6-8 at Oakland since the start of the 2008 season).

Add in the Rays’ 1-2 record in their only trip to San Francisco, and the Bucs’ 2-11 record in San Francisco and 0-6 record in Oakland and professional sports teams based in our Bay Area are 18-62 (.225) all-time in the other Bay Area.

That is 25% worse than their 33-38 (.464) record against the A’s, Giants, Niners, and Raiders at home.

Seems to me that kind of disparity can only be explained by airline peanuts…