After dropping the first two games of the weekend, the Tampa Bay Rays were on their way to being swept for the second time this season in a three-game series, but rallied from a 3-0 deficit with a Willy Adames homer, and Mike Brosseau‘s solo shot in the sixth proved to be the difference as they came back to defeat the Oakland Athletics 4-3 Sunday at the Oakland Coliseum.
Oakland was able to get a pair of runners on early in the first inning against Rays starter Shane McClanahan, but it would be the fourth inning when they were able to break through on the scoreboard with a two-out rally. Matt Chapman started it with a base hit and Seth Brown followed with a walk in front of Stephen Piscotty, who brought in Chapman with a single. A wild pitch moved the Oakland right fielder into scoring position, and Mitch Moreland brought in both Brown and Piscotty with a base hit of his own.
The Rays managed just one hit — a single by Randy Arozarena leading off the game — in the first four innings against Athletics starter Cole Irvin, but in the fifth, Mike Brosseau reached to start the frame on an error by Sean Murphy and moved to third on a double by Joey Wendle. After Mike Zunino popped out for the first out of the inning, Adames got a slider that leaked back in over the outside corner of the plate and poked it over the fence in right for his fourth home run of the season, tying the ballgame.
Brosseau gave the Rays their first lead of the weekend with a two-out blast an inning later against Irvin, his third homer of the year.
Jeffrey Springs, who worked a perfect bottom of the fifth with a pair of strikeouts, earned his third win of the year in relief. Ryan Thompson, Pete Fairbanks, and Andrew Kittredge each put up zeroes, with Kittredge getting the final five outs to earn his second save of the year.
Tampa Bay will have Monday off before opening their next homestand Tuesday against the New York Yankees.
Steve Carney is the founder and publisher of St. Pete Nine. One of the people most associated with baseball coverage in Tampa Bay, he spent 13 seasons covering the Rays for flagship radio station WDAE, first as producer of Rays Radio broadcasts, then as beat reporter beginning in 2011. He likes new analytics and aged bourbon, and is the owner of one of the ugliest knuckleballs ever witnessed by baseball scouts.
