Athletics drop finale 6-5 to Rays

Seventeen strikeouts seal their fate

The Athletics faced off against the Tampa Bay Rays this morning at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. After winning the first two games of this series, the A’s hoped to take a rare road sweep home with them as they head back to West Sac for their holiday weekend series against the rival San Francisco Giants.

Mitch Spence took the mound for the A’s today against Ryan Pepiot for the Rays. The A’s got on the board first, and loudly when Brent Rooker took the second pitch he saw today and deposited it deep into the left field stands.

Max Schuemann padded the A’s lead with a solo homer in the bottom of the second inning. Headed into the bottom of the second, the A’s led 2-0.

In the bottom of the inning, Jake Mangum hit a stand-up inside-the-park home run on a fly ball over Denzel Clarke’s head and off the center field wall.

Josh Lowe tied the score with a homer to straight-away center field in the bottom of the sixth. Brandon Lowe followed that with a double to center. Yandy Diaz ripped a homer to left field giving the Rays a 4-2 lead. That was all for Spence, who was replaced by Hogan Harris. Spence’s final line was 5.0 innings, four earned runs on seven hits and no walks. It was the three homers that did him in. Junior Caminero doubled to left fielder Coby Thomas who made a strong throw to second that beat Caminero to the bag, but Schuemann missed the tag on his arm, and he slid in safely. Chandler Simpson singled to right field scoring Caminero. Simpson stole second and scored on a base hit up the middle by Matt Thaiss. Finally, Taylor Walls struck out to end the inning. Walls was the ninth batter in the frame for the Rays.

In the top of the ninth inning, Max Muncy homered to start the inning. That tightened the score to 6-3. Austin Wynns doubled with no outs to brighten the hopes of a comeback victory. Gio Urshela singled to score Wynns. With one out Max Schuemann singled, moving Urshela to second. Monday’s late inning hero Lawrence Butler pinch hit. He singled to load the bases. Tyler Soderstrom singled on a soft grounder to first. That brought up Brent Rooker with the tying run on third and just one out. Rooker struck out swinging. That the left the ballgame up to Nick Kurtz. He worked the count full but struck out on what would have been ball four, an 88-mph changeup in the dirt.