Oakland Coliseum was electric ahead of the Athletics’ wild card game against the Tampa Bay Rays Wednesday evening.
Rays first baseman Yandy Diaz did something about that in short order, taking Sean Manaea’s fifth pitch of the game deep for a lead-off homer.
This is somewhat similar to the start the Milwaukee Brewers had against the Washington Nationals in Tuesday’s NL Wild Card Game. Fortunately for the Nats’ home crowd, Washington scored a late-game comeback win.
It will be interesting to see how the remainder of this game plays out in Oakland. The winner will head to Houston to take on the Astros in the AL Divisional Playoffs starting Friday evening.