The Rays beat the Oakland A’s on Tuesday night but lost on Wednesday evening. The split gave the Rays a 2-1 series win against the Athletics. They won Tuesday’s game in a nail-biter by the score of 3-2 and got whooped on Wednesday, 9-1. Tampa Bay is now 27-20 on the season, hanging in there in the tough AL East.
The Rays offense obviously struggled a little bit in both of these games. On Tuesday, Dioner Navarro delivered the big blow with a bases loaded double that drove in all three runs in the 8th inning. BJ Upton had a pair of hits, the only Rays with more than one. On Wednesday they couldn’t get much going against the A’s staff again. They got their lone run in the 8th inning on a solo home run from Jonny Gomes. The Rays managed only three hits all game.
The pitching on Tuesday night was the story in their 3-2 win. Scott Kazmir got the win as he went seven innings and gave up only one run while striking out 8 batters. Troy Percival gave up a run in the 9th to make things interesting but picked up his 13th save. On Wednesday, Andy Sonnanstine had no answer for the Athletics offense. He lasted six innings but was hit hard for seven run on nine hits. Sonnanstine is now 6-2 on the season.
The Rays will get Thursday off as a travel day as they head back to Tampa from California. On Friday they will start a weekend series with division rival, Baltimore. Matt Garza will start the opener.
