Rays Take A.L Wild Card; Head To Houston

October 3, 2019 3:48 am

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) – The Tampa Bay Rays are going to the American League Division Series after taking care of the Oakland Athletics in the wild-card game.  Yandy Diaz homered twice and Avisail  Garcia unloaded a two-run shot as the Rays downed the A’s, 5-1 in Oakland. Diaz became the third player to homer twice in a wild-card game, leading off the contest with a blast and adding a solo shot in his next at-bat. In between, Garcia delivered a two-run homer off Sean Manaea, who was tagged for all three homers and four runs in just two-plus innings.  Charlie Morton picked up the win by limiting the A’s to an unearned run and five hits over five innings.  Oakland’s run came on Ramon Laureano’s sacrifice fly in the third following a three-base throwing error by infielder Michael Brosseau. Brosseau had just moved from second the third base at the start of the inning.  The outcome sends the Rays to Houston to take on the Astros, who finished with a major league-leading 107 wins during the regular season. The ALDS begins on Friday.  The Athletics have lost nine straight winner-take-all games since 2000, going 1-15 with a chance to advance to the next round.