Game #36: A’s fall short of sweep but win season series against Rays

One unearned run made the difference Sunday

The Oakland A’s fell just short of sweeping the defending AL champion Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday. The very sentence is praise with only faint damning.

The A’s took an early lead in their series finale but couldn’t hold on in a 4-3 loss to the Rays, with an unearned run making the difference in the final tally. Oakland still won the weekend series, and had already clinched the season series against a fellow postseason contender.

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The day got off to a promising start, as the A’s got on the board first. Tampa Bay rookie Shane McClanahan kept Oakland’s lineup quiet for a while, but the second time through the order they broke through, just as they’d done when they faced him a couple weeks ago.

With two outs in the 4th inning, a rally brewed. Matt Chapman, who had homered off McClanahan in April at Tropicana Field, squared one up again and lined a single. Seth Brown worked a tough walk despite the platoon disadvantage against the high-octane southpaw, and then Stephen Piscotty found turf with a bloop to score Chapman.

Next up was Mitch Moreland, and he hit one hard the other way to beat the shift and plate two more.

Elvis Andrus almost kept it going, but his 97.7 mph liner to the outfield found a glove instead of a gap.

Unfortunately, that was all they got the rest of the day, as the Rays bullpen kept them off quiet. The 6th brought a single but a GIDP, the 7th had a two-out “triple” by Andrus (more like a bloop single and a bad choice by the defender), and the 8th saw two runners reach base but Matt Olson was thrown out at third trying to advance on a pitch that wasn’t quite wild enough — or rather, he hesitated too long before deciding to run, and that made the difference.

More details coming, including the pitching! Keep hitting refresh.