The Tampa Bay Rays best moments have almost all happened as a result of becoming the poster team for finding talented players and putting a competitive team on the field without a big payroll. The team’s use of analytics and unconventional thinking has made them famous and allowed them to contend in an Al East dominated by two of the biggest clubs in baseball.

Of course, it wasn’t always that way, as the Rays played under .500 for their first 10 years of existence (then known as the Devil Rays). The team broke out in its 11th season, winning the American League pennant in 2008. That became the first of many Tampa Bay Rays best moments in the 21st century.

Wade Boggs’s 3,000th Hit (1999)

A rare great moment in the Devil Rays era. Wade Boggs, a Tampa native, had become the Devil Rays’ first big star. Over the course of his 18-year career, he played for the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, and Devil Rays. In 1999, while playing for the Devil Rays in Tropicana Field,  Boggs became the 22nd player to reach 3,000 hits, and the first player whose 3,000th hit was a home run. During his trip around the bases, Boggs saluted his late mother and kissed home plate.

2008 American League Championship Series

The Rays started out the 2008 season – their first as just the “Rays” – as the worst team in baseball. but ended up making it all the way to the World Series. The ACLS against the Red Sox lasted seven games, with the Rays winning the deciding game 3-1. With a runner on first and the Red Sox Jed Lowrie at the plate, pitcher David Price earned a save by getting Lowrie to hit a ground ball. Second baseman Akinori Iwamura scooped up, stepping on second for the force out, and marking an incredible turnaround for a previously moribund franchise. The Rays went on to lose the World Series to the Philadelphia Phillies, but the fact they won the pennant seemed amazing given the team’s past.

Matt Garza’s 2010 No-Hitter

In 2010, the Rays had already been at the wrong end of four different no-hitters, three of which happened in the previous season. Finally, with Matt Garza as the pitcher and the Detroit Tigers as the opponent, the Rays got a chance to celebrate a no-hitter of their own. Garza struck out six players and walked only one, and the Rays beat the Tigers 5-0.

Game 162 (2011)

On a crazy last day of the season, both the Rays and the Red Sox could make it to the postseason with a win. But as the Red Sox led the game against the Baltimore Orioles in Baltimore, the Rays were losing spectacularly to the New York Yankees in Florida, down by seven runs. But it ain’t over until it’s over. The Rays scored three runs in the eighth inning, and Evan Longoria got a three-run shot that closed the gap between the Rays and the Yankees. The Rays were still one run  behind in the bottom of the ninth with two outs when catcher Dan Johnson stepped to the plate and hit one of the most famous home runs in Rays’ history, tying the game. Three innings later, Longoria hit a homer that won the game and sent the Rays into the postseason as a wild card, just shortly after the Red Sox blew a lead in the ninth to lose to the Orioles.

Game 4 of the 2020 World Series

This game ended in not just one of the Tampa Bay Rays most memorable moments, but one of the most memorable moments in recent World Series history. Down 2-1 in the series to the Los Angeles Dodgers and trailing 7-6 in the game, the wildly improbable happened. In the bottom of the ninth, Kevin Kiermaier singled and breakout star Randy Arozarena walked. Then, with two outs, Brett Phillips stepped up to the plate.

Phillips had not had a hit since the end of the regular season, but he turned it around in this at-bat. He hit a single into right field, and then things got very interesting. The ball bounced off Dodger Chris Taylor’s glove, allowing Kiermaier to score and tie the game. Arozarena began rounding the bases from first, but he ended up in a tricky position between third and home, falling down and rolling for a moment down the third base line. At this point, Dodger Max Muncy was throwing the ball to catcher Will Smith.

Everything happened so fast that Smith didn’t realize Arozarena had fallen. After the fact, his teammate Justin Turner said that if Smith knew what was going on with Arozarena, he would’ve taken his time and been sure to catch the ball. As it was, he focused on turning as fast as possible to make the ball, and the ball careened away from him. Arozarena, bouncing quickly to his feet, began to turn back toward third, but saw the ball skitter away. He made a head-first dive for home plate, scoring the winning run.

After the fact, Phillips made the comment he will likely always be remembered for: “Man, baseball’s fun.”