A’s Win In Extras, Beat Rays 4-3

Sets themselves up to go for the sweep tomorrow morning

The A’s eked out the win on Tuesday evening over the Rays, winning in extra innings in Tampa Bay 4-3 and setting themselves up to possibly secure the series sweep with a win in tomorrow’s road trip finale.

Jeffrey Springs got the start for the Green & Gold tonight for his 17th appearance. Looking to bring his solid June into the new month the left-hander started out with a scoreless first inning before allowing solo shots to Christopher Morel and Brandon Lowe in the second and third innings, respectively, to put his team in an early hole. Those two hitters lead the Rays in homers so not terribly surprising they were the ones that made Springs pay for a couple early mistakes. Things could have been far worse if not for a heads-up play from Springs’ battery mate in the bottom of the second:

A’s hitters meanwhile were going up against young right-hander Shane Baz for the Rays, who was making his 17th outing of the season, too. His first time through the Athletics’ batting order went well, striking out five hitters, inducing a double play, and allowing just one hit and walk through the first three frames.

Now attempting to go through the batting order for a second time, the A’s saw more success against the young righty. Catcher Shea Langeliers, in just his second game back off the IL, hit a one-out double, and one batter later third baseman Max Muncy went the other way for an oppo-taco two-run, game-tying home run, the rookie’s sixth long ball of the season:

Brand new ballgame. Later in the frame A’s outfielder Colby Thomas recorded his first career base hit, a two-out double off Baz that kept the rally going:

Keep that ball! The first of many for the organization’s #2 prospect. The A’s ultimately couldn’t cash in on that chance but it wouldn’t be that long of a wait for more. After going down 1-2-3 in the fifth Langeliers stepped to the plate again and blasted a solo home run, his second in as many days and 12th of the season to give the A’s their first lead of the evening:

Getting him back has already paid huge dividends for the club, and once the A’s get second baseman Zack Gelof and left fielder/DH Miguel Andujar back from the IL, the offense will be back to full strength. Should be sooner than later for Gelof, while Andujar is only just about to embark on his rehab assignment from his oblique strain.

Now with the lead, the name of the game the rest of the night was preserving that previous one-run advantage. Outside of those two mistakes to Morel and Lowe, Springs was on top of his game tonight, allowing just two more hits during the rest of his outing. His final batter chased him from the game with a one-out double in the sixth, finally ending the left-hander’s day but in line for the win.

• Jeffrey Springs: 5 ¹⁄₃ IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 2 HR, 96 pitches

Another solid outing from the left-hander. The Rays didn’t have many answers for Springs and he dropped his ERA to a respectable 4.07 mark for the year. And considering how horribly his season started getting it down to almost under four is a testament to how well he’s pitched since the calendar flipped from April to May. He’ll hope to continue riding this momentum into his next scheduled start, which lines up to be against the Atlanta Braves a week from tonight.

Right-hander Justin Sterner replaced Springs in the bottom of the sixth with that runner on second, and he and the A’s got a bit of a scare from the first batter he faced since returning from Triple-A. Thankfully the growing defensive star that is Denzel Clarke was there to save the day:

How many robberies is that now? Is anyone counting? Any chance he could win some golden hardware even though he missed the first month and a half of the season?

Sterner finished the frame innocently enough, but then gave away the lead when he missed with a high fastball to Rays catcher Danny Jansen that he did not miss, depositing a game-tying homer over the left field wall. No win for Springs tonight, but the A’s still had life in a tied contest.

Needing a run to avoid extra innings, the A’s went down in order in both the eighth and ninth innings with four punchouts. Athletics relievers Sean Newcomb and Michael Kelly both had scoreless appearances that got this game into free baseball territory, with some added help from the starting catcher:

Off to extras. Starting the top of the 10th with a runner on second base, a sacrifice bunt put the go-ahead run just 90 feet away. A walk put runners at the corners and instead of letting the lefty-swinging Lawrence Butler face the left-handed Mason Montgomery of the Rays, manager Mark Kotsay elected to pinch-hit backup catcher and right-handed hitter Austin Wynns hoping to at least avoid a ground ball double play. Wynns came through with that and then some, giving the A’s the lead with a sacrifice fly that ended up being way more exciting than it should have been after an adventure in the field by the Rays defense:

That extra run for the A’s would have been nice. I like the aggressiveness. The Rays have everything to lose and needed to execute that relay perfectly to nab the second runner at home. Either way, the A’s now had the lead with three outs to go.

Enter closer Mason Miller. Looking to collect his 17th save of the year, Miller didn’t let his inherited runner move any farther than second, collecting a pair of punchouts to end this game and securing at minimum the series victory for the Athletics. Last year’s All-Star now has a 4.77 ERA but 11 of the 16 runs he’s allow this season came in three disaster meltdown appearances. On the year the flamethrowing closer is 17/20 in save opportunities.

All in all, a nice win for the guys. Springs made two bad mistakes that were punished but was generally sharp in this one and deserved a win. Langeliers looks like he never left, going 2-for-4 with a double, homer, a pick off, and to add a cherry on top caught a runner stealing in the bottom of the ninth to keep this game scoreless. Thomas got that first base hit off his shoulders and out of the way and can now really start settling in. The hitters struck out 15 times compared to just two walks but they made the hits they did get count in a big way. The A’s are now 36-52 as they approach the All-Star Break, which is quickly coming up in a couple weeks.

The A’s wrap up the series and long road trip with a bright and early 9:10 a.m. start time tomorrow morning in the finale against the Rays. Hoping to secure the series sweep over a team with October aspirations, the A’s will turn to righty Mitch Spence to finish off their AL East foe. Since returning to the starting rotation last month Spence has a 2.92 ERA in five outings, rewarding the Athletics’ coaches for finally relenting and giving him a chance to return to starting duties. He’ll now try to keep it up going into July. The Rays will counter Spence with their own right-hander in Ryan Pepiot, who is having a big season for Tampa Bay and has been a big reason why they’re in the thick of the playoff race. The 27-year-old will bring a 3.37 ERA into tomorrow morning’s finale, so let’s hope A’s hitters get a good night’s rest and wake up ready to finish the Rays and this three-city road trip off.