At some point, there is a conversation to be had about Yandy Diaz and his reluctance to challenges.
Tampa Bay, down one run in the ninth, Diaz came to the plate as the go-ahead run, with Richie Palacios on first.
Strike one was above the zone, and Diaz, as Diaz does, took a long glare at home plate umpire Austin Jones to say he disagreed with the call instead of simply tapping his helmet.
You can’t take the challenges home with you, as the Rays had both available.
Strike two was a forkball down the middle, and strike three barely grazed the zone, as Diaz went down looking, and the Rays went down valiantly, 3-2 in a close one at One Tropicana Drive.
How did we get to a 3-2 final, you may ask? Let me get you there.
The Metropolitans would strike first, as Mark Vientos would ground into a double play that scored Bo Bichette.
Tampa Bay had their big opportunity against Robert Stock, who had the best outing of his MLB career, when the Rays loaded the bases on three singles with no outs in the fifth.
They came up empty-handed.
Taylor Walls popped out, Diaz struck out swinging, and Jonathan Aranda lined out to former Ray Christopher Morel in left field.
Stock’s final line would go as follows; 5 IP, 4 R, 0 BB.
Vientos would announce his presence with authority again, as he jumped on an Ian Seymour changeup and deposited it into the left-center field seats. 2-1 Mets.
Seymour had another quality start, going 6.1 IP while allowing three runs and striking out ten, finishing the month of August leading the American League in punchouts.
The straw that broke the Flappy Boy’s back proved to be a Marcus Semien fly ball that left fielder Chandler Simpson got a bad read on, and didn’t take charge on, resulting in a Francisco Alvarez single that would plate another run.
We do it again at 6:40 EST from Tropicana Field, with Freddy Peralta toeing the slab against his former mates in orange and blue.
