Tampa Bay Rays’ Tommy Pham, right, celebrates his walk-off RBI single off Baltimore Orioles relief pitcher Dillon Tate with Travis d’Arnaud, center, and Nate Lowe, left, during the 10th inning of a baseball game Monday, Sept. 2, 2019, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
TAMPA (WFLA/AP) – The Tampa Bay Rays are headed back to the postseason for the first time since 2013!
With a win over the Blue Jays and the Washington Nationals win over the Cleveland Indians, the Rays will face the Oakland Athletics in a wild card game!
Tampa Bay will play Oakland on the wild-card game on Wednesday night. The Rays will start Charlie Morton.
At 96-64, the low-budget Rays have their most wins since 2010 and can tie the team record of 97 set in 2008, when they won their only AL pennant and lost to Philadelphia in the World Series.
Tampa Bay began the night with a magic number of two to clinch, and Cleveland lost 8-2 at Washington while the Rays were in the eighth inning.
Jubilant players poured out of Tampa Bay’s dugout for a celebration around the mound after right-hander Emilio Pagan retired Reese McGuire to end it.
At this time it has not been determined where the game will be played as the A’s currently have a 1.5 game lead over the Rays. It will, however, take place on Wednesday night.
“We do some crazy stuff and people scratch their heads a lot,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “These guys don’t care. They want to win.”
Austin Meadows also homered for the Rays, hitting his 33rd this season off Ryan Dull in the ninth.
Making his fourth appearance since returning from the injured list after missing 107 games because of a strained forearm, Glasnow threw 66 pitches, including 35 strikes, a 14-pitch increase from his previous outing. The right-hander struck out four and walked two.
This is the Rays first postseason appearance since 2013 and fifth overall.
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