The Rays hit four homers while Oakland’s offense didn’t record and extra-fair hit
The Tampa Bay Rays hit four homers to beat the Oakland Athletics, 5-1, in the American League Wild Card Game at RingCentral Coliseum in Oakland on Wednesday night. Tampa Bay advances to the ALDS to take on the Astros starting on Friday.
The Rays turned into the third group in MLB postseason history to hit four homers in a victor take-all game. The other two: the Red Sox (2004 ALCS Game 7) and the Yankees (1956 World Series Game 7). In the mean time, the An’s offense couldn’t create an extra-fair hit during the whole game. Oakland completed the game with eight hits, all singles. The Athletics’ just run scored in the misfortune came by means of a tossing blunder and fielder’s choice.
Wednesday’s down was the first postseason meeting between the two establishments. The Rays showed up since 2013 while the Athletics showed up since 2012. In 2013, the Rays won the AL Wild Card Game over the Indians, however later lost to the possible World Series champion Red Sox in four games in the ALDS. Oakland lost to the Yankees in the 2018 AL trump card game, and haven’t progressed past the ALDS since 2006. With Wednesday’s misfortune, the An’s all-inclusive their success or-return home game losing streak to nine straight games, a MLB record.
Why the Rays won
Tampa Bay slugged its way to this success, and utilized the long ball to knock off the A’s, scoring the majority of their runs by means of grand slams. Yandy Diaz homered twice, incorporating beginning the game with a lead-off impact and Avisail Garcia and Tommy Pham thumped out homers of their own. The distinction creator in all out attack mode side for Tampa was Diaz, who was sidelined since July 22 with a left foot wound, and just was enacted from the harmed rundown this past Sunday. The offense was sponsored by a strong presentation from starter Charlie Morton. While Morton wasn’t at his best, he got away from his five-inning trip with insignificant harm on account of his fastball.
Why the A’s lost
The primary issue for the A’s was simply the way that they delved in an early gap. The A’s were trailing in each at-bat they had and just couldn’t get anything moving on offense with the additional weight. Sean Manaea got thumped out of the game early, which may make some A’s fans question why administrator Bob Melvin didn’t convey Mike Fiers to begin Wednesday’s down. At any rate 22-year-old Jesus Luzardo constrained the harm and tossed two scoreless innings in his first ever postseason appearance.
Play of the game
At the point when Yandy Diaz shot his subsequent grand slam of the game, thumping Sean Manaea out of the game all the while, Tampa dealt with the challenge.
Diaz achieved something couple of players have done previously (multi-HR postseason game), and his subsequent homer filled in as the defining moment for the Rays, giving them breathing room in the success or-return home game.
Quotable
“He made us look a lot smarter than what we really are,” Rays director Kevin Cash said about batting Diaz in the leadoff spot.
What’s straightaway
The Rays have an extreme errand ahead. They’ll confront the Houston Astros in the best-of-five ALDS. Houston posted the best standard season record in baseball and is the most loved to win the World Series. The Astros will send their first class pivot, which incorporates Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Zack Greinke . The Rays went 4-3 against Houston in the customary season, yet everything’s diverse in the playoff setting. Game 1 is planned for this Friday.
