OAKLAND, Calif. — The Oakland A’s and the Tampa Bay Rays are linked in baseball’s consciousness, cousins from opposite coasts with rhyming nicknames, tarps often draped over empty seats in the upper deck and a knack for doing more with less.

“The Rays and the A’s, we’re sort of sister clubs,” said Billy Beane, Oakland’s executive vice president of baseball operations, during batting practice before the American League wild card game at the Coliseum on Wednesday. “They’ve been doing a lot with what they have for a long time; they’re very disciplined. I have so much respect for them. I think they’re just brilliant over there.”

That admiration could only have grown on Wednesday, when four Rays pitchers and four home runs stifled the A’s and silenced the crowd in a 5-1 Tampa Bay victory. The Rays got two of the homers from Yandy Diaz — who had played only once since July because of a broken foot — and will travel to Houston to meet the Astros in a division series starting Friday.

Impressive though their seasons have been, the A’s and Rays can present an inconvenient sticking point for Commissioner Rob Manfred, who speaks often of Major League Baseball as a “growth industry,” while acknowledging that the league cannot expand until the A’s and the Rays find new stadiums. Both have been searching in vain for years.