The Tampa Bay Rays saw their five-game winning streak come to an end Friday night, as Seth Brown‘s solo homer in the bottom of the ninth inning gave the Oakland Athletics a 2-1 win.
Brown’s blast, his fourth of the year, came with two outs against left-hander Jeffrey Springs, who came on to start the inning and got Matt Chapman to line out and Jed Lowrie to ground out to begin the frame.
Both Rays starter Rich Hill and Athletics starter Sean Manaea engaged in a game of chicken to start the game. Hill allowed two hits, a pair of walks and hit a batter, but did not allow a hit in his outing Friday. Manaea was even better, as he retired the first 18 Rays hitters he faced, until walking Randy Arozarena leading off the seventh.
Oakland took the lead in the bottom of the seventh against reliever Andrew Kittredge, as Lowrie doubled with one out, his third hit of the night, and scored on a base hit by Brown, who pinch-hit for Stephen Piscotty.
The Rays drew even as Manaea’s no-hit bid was finally ended by his former high school teammate Mike Brosseau, who doubled to start the eighth, and Mike Zunino followed with an RBI single.
Willy Adames followed two batters later with a single, which moved pinch-runner Joey Wendle into scoring position, and pinch-hitter Austin Meadows grounded into a fielder’s choice that got Wendle to third, but Arozarena flew out to Tony Kemp in left to strand the go-ahead run 90 feet from the plate.
The loss drops the Rays back to two games above .500 at 18-16.
Tampa Bay can even the series with a victory in Saturday’s middle game. Tyler Glasnow (4-1, 2.06 ERA) will get the start, taking on Frankie Montas (3-2, 5.87 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 4:07.
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.
