NEW YORK — Randy Arozarena homered twice and the Tampa Bay Rays clinched their first AL East title in 10 years Wednesday night with an 8-5 victory over the New York Mets.
Joey Wendle and Brandon Lowe also went deep for the Rays to back Tyler Glasnow‘s six solid innings. Tampa Bay will be home at quirky Tropicana Field for a best-of-three first-round playoff series beginning next Tuesday.
It is the third division crown for the thrifty Rays, who also won the AL East in 2008 and 2010. Their inaugural season was 1998.
After missing a chance to clinch Tuesday, the Rays went into Wednesday again needing just a win or a New York Yankees loss against Toronto to lock up the division championship.
The Rays (37-20) broke a 2-2 tie in the sixth on Arozarena’s two-run homer off Michael Wacha and pulled away, taking care of business themselves.
As has become customary during this pandemic-shortened season, the celebration was muted. After Nick Anderson fanned Andres Gimenez for the final out, the closer exchanged a hug with catcher Mike Zunino. The Rays filed out of the dugout and someone shot off a canister filled with confetti that eventually fluttered down onto the grass and dirt at Citi Field.
With one out in the sixth, Lowe singled off Wacha (1-4). Arozarena homered to center field on the next pitch.
Lowe, who had an RBI fielder’s choice in the third, hit a two-run homer in the eighth. Willy Adames added an RBI single later in the inning and Arozarena homered again in the ninth.
Wendle homered in the second.
The insurance came in handy for the Rays when the Mets scored three times off Oliver Drake in the ninth — via an RBI groundout by Robinson Cano and a two-run homer by Todd Frazier before Anderson closed the door.
Glasnow (5-1) gave up two runs, three hits and one walk with eight strikeouts.
Gimenez and Dominic Smith homered off Glasnow in the final home game of the season for the Mets, whose long-shot playoff hopes were further damaged with the loss. New York began the day 2½ games out of an NL wild-card spot.
Wacha gave up four runs and six hits, and struck out four in six innings.
Wednesday night’s loss guaranteed the Mets (25-31) will finish with a sub-.500 record for the ninth time in the past 12 seasons. New York made the playoffs in back-to-back seasons in 2015 and 2016 and went 86-76 last year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.