For the ninth time in 10 trips to the postseason, Moneyball came up short.
The Oakland A’s, who have only won a single playoff series (ALDS in 2006 over the Twins) with Billy Beane in charge of the team, lost to the Tampa Bay Rays 5-1 in the AL wild-card round.
The Rays were able to pound the A’s into submission on Wednesday night with four home runs, two of which came off the bat of first baseman Yandy Diaz.
Yandy Diaz wasting no time ✌️
That’s the first postseason leadoff HR in Rays history. pic.twitter.com/plxYwllI7I
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) October 3, 2019
YANDY DIAZ AGAIN. HOME RUNS ONLYpic.twitter.com/a8fOhvB1VN
— Starting 9 (@Starting9) October 3, 2019
The 28-year-old slugger had only played once since late July because of a foot injury, but crushed a leadoff homer in the first and went deep again in the third inning.
For Dian, who hit 14 homers this season but had only during over 88 games in his first two seasons with the Indians, it was a postseason power surge.
“When I looked to the bench and saw the guys super excited, it pumped me up to go around the bases,” Diaz said. “I thought we had to carry that momentum throughout the game.”
Avisail Garcia hit a two-run drive in the second and Tommy Pham homered in the fifth inning to account for the fourth homer and fifth run for the 96-win Rays.
Oakland had Tampa starter Charlie Morton on the ropes in the first inning but failed to break the game open and left the bases loaded thanks to a double play.
The win sets up baseball’s lowest spender into a playoff matchup with the Houston Astros, the World Series winner two years ago and one of the favorites to win again this year.
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