Rays 5, Athletics 3
Record: 44-32
Attendance: 16,126.
The win didn't come easily--for the players or the fans who stayed up till 1:30 to see it through. The A's collected 10 hits, including two more homers against leaky Rays' pitching (the 12th for both Matt Olson and Ramon Laureano). The Rays chipped in a couple of errors too, plus two walks. On the Rays side of the ledger, they too collected 10 hits, including one home run, Willy Adames's seventh (all hit on the road where he is hitting over .300). The A's were "credited" with one error and one run-scoring passed ball, but their defense was weak all night, while the Rays were very sharp on defense.
The Rays drew first blood with two in the third and one in the fourth, while the A's put up single runs in the third and fourth. Adames's home run in the sixth extended the lead to 4-2, but no Rays fan was comfortable with the lead considering that the team had given up four runs in the bottom of the ninth the night before, including Matt Chapman's walk-off three-run homer. No this one was far from over going into the eighth. That's when the Matt bats got together to draw within one, Matt Olson doubling in Matt Chapman. It was a tight 4-3 game. But the Rays scored an insurance run in the top of the ninth when Brandon Lowe (3 for 5) doubled home Adames (3 for 4).
But a two-run lead in the ninth didn't seem safe in the hands of this bullpen this week. The Rays had already burned through an opener Andrew Kittredge who went two innings; a Bulkster Jalen Beeks who went two more innings (two runs), and Austin Pruitt who pitched three innings giving up only one run. At that point Kevin Cash began his caravan of two-out pitchers, Poche, Roe, Drake, and finally Pagan, who picked up his fourth save. Notable was that Diego Castillo did not come in even though Cash said that he would bring him in if the situation called for it. Apparently this situation did not. Thank God.
The whole thing took three hours and twenty minutes. Hard viewing.
Postscript to Thursday's 5-4 walkoff A's victory. The A's starting pitcher, Frankie Montas (9-2, 2.70 ERA) dominated the Rays--eight innings, four hits, one run, 9 Ks, 93 pitches. Today he was given an 80-game suspension by Major League Baseball for using performance enhancing drugs.
Postcript to yesterday's story that the Rays' front office was going to explore a split season between Tampa and Montreal, Canada. No one thinks it will work. Here's Tampa Bay Times Financial page editor, Graham Brink: "The challenges don't end with the distance. The team would have to deal with different currencies, tax codes, corporate sponsors, languages, climates, and politics."
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