ST. PETERSBURG, FL - Yandy Díaz kept flexing his left knee between pitches. Then he drew a walk and kept going.

The Rays' leadoff hitter appeared to twist the knee during his at-bat in the third inning of Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday night. He stepped out once, with Rays manager Kevin Cash and trainer Joe Benge coming out to look at him, and again flexing his knee as he went to get a new bat. He finished the at-bat and took first base.

There, he called time again and a trainer came out. Díaz stayed in, but he limped into third on a fly ball and walked slowly off the field.

"I hope he is OK," Rays manager Kevin Cash said in an in-game interview on FOX. "We need his bat in there."

Tampa Bay trails the series 3-1 and trailed in the game 1-0 at the time of Diaz’s injury.  No team has forced a Game 6 after falling behind 3-0 in the World Series. The Rays are already playing with Junior Caminero on a sore left foot from Game 4, and now their 35-year-old designated hitter is hurting too.

Díaz has dealt with this knee before. He left an August 2022 game against the Kansas City Royals with left knee soreness, and an August 2024 game against the San Diego Padres with left knee patellar tendinitis.

He hit .293 in the regular season. He and Steven Matz are the only Rays who had played in a World Series before this one, and Díaz did it with Tampa Bay in 2020. He had three hits in the Rays' Game 5 win over Cleveland in the ALCS. In this series, he had two hits in Game 3, then a hit and a walk in Game 4.

Diaz is one of the most reliable bats in the Rays lineup. He hit .293 this season, third best in the American League, with 22 home runs and 85 RBIs, and he led the AL with 180 hits on his way to a second All-Star selection.

If the knee forces him out, Cash doesn’t have much to work with. He already said Tuesday that the bench was thin. Cedric Mullins, Nick Fortes and Jorge Mateo have combined for seven plate appearances through the first seven games. Victor Mesa, Jr. and Mullins are the left-handed options. Mateo and Fortes the right-handed onese. Richie Palacios is another left.