Rays get wild in Oakland and defeat the Athletics, 5-1

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Yandy Diaz hit a pair of homers Wednesday night in Oakland en route to the Tampa Bay Rays 5-1 defeat of the Oakland Athletics in the AL Wildcard game. The Rays have won all three Wildcard games in team history and are headed to the ALDS.

After playing in just one game after a two-month stay in the Injured List because of a fractured foot, Diaz homered in his first two postseason plate appearances — the fifth multi-home run postseason effort in franchise history.

In the first at-bat of the game, Diaz worked a 3-1 count against Sean Manaea before he lined his first homer over the wall in right-center.

Then in the second inning, Matt Duffy beat out an infield single into the hole at short before Avisail Garcia hit a two-run blast to center field for an early three-run lead.

Diaz chased Manaea in the third inning with his second long ball of the game. Prior to Wednesday, the left-handed Manaea hadn’t allowed more than two runs in any of his previous five starts.

Meanwhile, Charlie Morton battled against Oakland. The right-hander withstood a 32-pitch, two-walk first inning by coaxing a fly-ball out from Jurickson Profar, ending the threat.

Then in the second inning, Morton was able to escape a one-out situation by forcing Sean Murphy to ground into a 5-4-3 double play.

Yet, Oakland got on the board in the third inning when Marcus Semien reached on a three-base throwing error by Mike Brosseau at third. Ramon Laureano lifted a sacrifice fly to right, which cut into the Rays lead.

But, Tampa Bay answered two innings later against Yusmeiro Petit. In his second at-bat against Petit, Tommy Pham drilled a line-drive home run to left-center, extending the lead once again to a slam.

And while he didn’t have his best stuff, Morton still made big pitches in the fourth and fifth innings. In the fourth, with runners on the corners and two out, Charlie got Semien to ground out to end the threat.

Then in his final frame of work, Morton got Matt Olson to ground into an inning-ending 4-5-3 double play, solidifying a victory in Morton’s first postseason outing of 2019.

From there, Kevin Cash leaned on the Rays a-bullpen. The Rays skipper first called upon Diego Castillo, who worked around a Jurickson Profar single. Then in the seventh, Castillo allowed just a two-out bloop hit to Ramon Laureano, but got through the frame largely unscathed.

All told, Castillo struck out three across a pair of scoreless frames and allowed just two hits.

Nick Anderson took over in the eighth inning and allowed a shift beating single before he came back with a triplet of strikeouts to end the frame. Anderson dropped in curveballs at the top of the zone and enticed hitters with 98 above the zone. With the hitters expecting to see more pitches up, Anderson moved the ball around the bottom of the zone and Oakland’s hitters couldn’t resist swinging through them, much to their chagrin. The right-hander struck out four batters across 1-1/3 innings.

Finally, Emilio Pagan entered the game tasked with getting the final two outs. The former Athletic coaxed an easy ground out before he got Semien to swing through a 1-2 fastball to end the game.

Rays win, 5-1, and not even Stu Sternberg’s stupid antics — getting Stephen Bronfman and his partners to attend the game — can bring me down. Brong on Houston!