3 moments during Yankees-Rays series that prove Tampa has gone soft

2. Yandy Diaz Crying About Correct Replay Review

Because whenever you lose a game by two runs, you have to look back at when things went wrong in the top of the sixth inning when you were already down 2-0 to assess the blame. Come on down, Yandy Diaz!

In the series opener on Tuesday, Gerrit Cole worked his way in and out of trouble. Diaz led off the inning with a single, and then Harold Ramirez served up a tailor-made double-play ball for Cole. But the pitcher nearly air-mailed it into center field.

Gleyber Torres saved the day, though, with his outstretched arm, securing the ball and keeping his toe on the bag. It was initially ruled an error, but after a challenge, the replay revealed Torres made the play. The correct call was made.

That didn’t stop Diaz from complaining about it in the postgame, claiming that the umps’ “missed call” (the correct call) cost the Rays the game and that a “five-year-old” could’ve made the right call. Yes, a five-year-old, if you explained the rules of baseball to them in that moment with the picture of Torres catching the ball with his foot on the bag, would’ve told you the runner was out too!

The point we’re trying to make here is, outside of Kevin Kiermaier and Kevin Cash, the Rays don’t do this kind of whining. They usually sit back in silence, badger teams with their pesky and insistent style of play, and wait for the opposition to break down or shoot themselves in the foot.

Instead, it’s been the Rays loudly complaining about things being unfair and their fans going off the rails on social media. And they also haven’t been playing fundamentally sound baseball (errors in this series legitimately cost them two wins). Sounds like the 2021 Yankees and their fans, right?