The Tampa Bay Rays are not having a great season, and perhaps the frustrations of not being in postseason position are getting to the players a bit as tempers flared in the dugout on Wednesday night.
Yandy Diaz and Jose Caballero, two of the remaining stars in Tampa Bay after a massive overhaul at the MLB trade deadline, were spotted screaming at each other to the point where they needed to be separated in the dugout during the team’s game against the Oakland Athletics on the road.
The Rays may have won the game, 4-2, but Diaz and Caballero continued to jaw at each other, while their teammates were pushing them farther apart in the dugout.
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Media caught wind of the altercation in the dugout and asked Caballero after the game what happened. He basically pointed to the Rays being 6.5 games back of a wild-card spot with only a month left to play.
"Emotions got the best of us," Caballero said, via the New York Post. "We’re trying to be the best player we can be. We’re competitors. Emotions got us, and we’re just trying to be the best we can be, and things happen and just trying to make plays and try to win games. We’re in a bad stretch, we’re not doing the best, and we wish we would be in a playoff position and maybe that could be one of the things that got us. Just trying to be competitors out there and emotions got us. Play happened, and we got to the dugout and things happened."
Manager Kevin Cash added: "It happens. We’re in a season right now where we’re trying to fight and claw every way to get back into this thing. We got a lot of work to do, so we got two guys that are really competing – we got a bunch of guys that are really competing and want things to go perfectly and sometimes they don’t. Seemed like there was a little friction, but I’m very confident we’ll move on from it and be ready to go."
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What was the reason behind Diaz and Caballero getting mad at one another?
At one point in the game, Diaz, the Rays’ first baseman, wasn’t able to field a low throw from Caballero, who was playing third base.
Diaz wasn’t in a hurry to grab the ball that trickled behind him, with catcher Alex Jackson hustling down the line to back it up. And Miguel Andujar, who decided to pick up his helmet that flew off, was eventually called out after going to grab it before scurrying back to first base.
The tying run was going to come to the plate for the A’s if umpires didn’t rule Andujar out on the tag after Jackson got the ball back to Diaz.
The broadcast for the Rays spotted Diaz walking and pointing at someone on the field, though the player or coach was not in view. That’s when a Rays broadcaster speculated that Caballero was involved in the dispute before he was eventually seen in the camera.
Tampa Bay expects a lot from the team despite the front office trading players like Isaac Paredes, their only All-Star this season, Randy Arozarena, right-handers Tyler Zuber, Shawn Armstrong, Jason Adam out of the bullpen, and righty starter Zach Eflin.
They are at 64-62 and have won five of their last six games. The Rays are looking for win No. 3 of their four games in Oakland on Thursday afternoon.
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