Rays: 3, Athletics: 7 - Yarby Sharp in Rays Loss

Rays’ bats too late to recover

Rays would look to complete the sweep of the Oakland A’s and look for the 6th win in a row with Daniel “Rollie Fingers” Mengden taking the hill for the Athletics, and Ryne “The Opener” Stanek starting for the Rays.

Stanek started the game well, sitting down the A’s 1-2-3 in the 1st, but would give up a double to the recently activated Khris Davis. A walk to Cahna would cause Cash to pull his starter and go to Yarby.

Yarby would allow the inherited runners to score off of a Stephen Piscotty double, and Canha would bring Piscotty home with a bloop single. 3-0 A’s after 2.

Rays’ bats would stay pretty quiet for the most part, with Mengden pitching to both sides of the zone, and keeping the Rays’ hitters guessing with plenty of offspeed offerings. There was a rally in the 4th with a Joey Wendle 1- out single, followed by a Wilson Ramos walk. Mengden would then get Daniel Robertson to strikeout on a disappearing slider, and Miller on an inside fastball.

Not much would change throughout the game for the Rays, as Mengden kept the Rays guessing, and looking lost at the plate. Mengden lived up to his classic Athletic’s vibe by attacking the zone, and throwing all of his pitches for strikes. Rays couldn’t keep up or make anything happen all game.

Yarby would settle in after a rocky start, getting 9 swinging strikeouts in 5.2 IP. His only blemish besides is first inning of work were two solo HR by Matt Olson and Matt Chapman. His final line would be 5 H, 3 ER, 3BB and 9 Strikeouts (!!!).

Nuno would take over for Yarby and give up a 2 run jack to no other than former Ray, Matt Joyce. 7-0 Athletics.

Rays would not go down without a fight, with two back to back singles in the 9th by Cron and a double by Ramos to put the Rays on the board. That would be the end of the night for Mengden, with Josh Lucas taking over. He would almost get the A’s to their last out before Christian Arroyo delivered a double to give the Rays another run and make the score 7-3 and runners on 2nd and 3rd.

Field would come up, and the Rays rally looked like it would continue, but then this happened.

Can’t be mad about that one.

Rays continue their West Coast trip with a 3 game series against the Seattle Mariners.

Opener Sergio Romo takes on Mike Leake. First pitch is at 10:10 PM EST.