WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As you might have observed, little or no has gone the best way the Rays have deliberate of late.
Wednesday evening was a welcome exception.
With All-Star starter Drew Rasmussen taking a 15 ⅓-inning scoreless streak and the boldness that comes with it to the mound, they have been banking on a powerful begin.
And after a quiet Tuesday on the plate, supervisor Kevin Money made an affordable request throughout his pregame media session: “I’d prefer to see us get him some early runs.”
Rasmussen did his half, working six sturdy innings.
The hitters did theirs, scoring 4 runs within the first and including two extra within the second on a mammoth homer by Brandon Lowe. (They tacked on two extra within the ninth on Junior Caminero’s thirty fourth homer of the season.)
And identical to that, the Rays gained a sport, 8-2 over the Athletics.
For all that has been going badly, the Rays gained a sequence for the second time within the first three stops of their marathon 14-day, 12-game highway journey, which concludes with a weekend matchup in opposition to the Giants.
In doing so, they improved to 59-63 and moved to five ½ video games again of the third American League wild-card spot, presently held by the Yankees.
Rasmussen gave the Rays just about precisely what they wanted by working the six sturdy innings, permitting solely two runs on three hits and no walks.
He misplaced each his scoreless streak and a powerful stretch of three straight begins with out permitting an extra-base hit when Lawrence Butler led off the third with a house run that was of little consequence.
The one different run Rasmussen allowed got here within the fifth. Colby Thomas led off with a single, went to second on an error at third by Caminero and scored on a one-out single by Gio Urshela. However Rasmussen stored the lead at 6-2 by retiring the subsequent two batters.
The Rays then turned issues over to their bullpen, and that labored, too. Bryan Baker, who came visiting in early July from the Orioles, dealt with the seventh. Griffin Jax, the trade-deadline-heading acquisition from the Twins, labored the eighth. And Mason Englert obtained the ultimate three outs.
The Rays obtained off to a very good begin, scoring 4 runs with two outs within the first off J.T. Ginn.
Chandler Simpson, as is usually the case, obtained them going. He led off with a single, went to second on an errant pickoff throw and superior to 3rd on a Brandon Lowe flyout. However after Yandy Diaz struck out, the Rays obtained going.
Josh Lowe doubled — a ball down the road that was grabbed by the A’s ball boy — to attain Simpson. Caminero adopted with a double that scored Lowe for his 82nd RBI (he later added two extra).
Jake Mangum stored the rally going in opposition to his former Mississippi State teammate with a single that scored Caminero.
After catcher Hunter Feduccia walked, the Rays pulled off a double steal, and Mangum scored on an errant throw by catcher Shea Langeliers.
The Rays shortly prolonged the result in 6-0 within the second.
Simpson used his blazing velocity to beat out a sluggish infield curler for a single.
Then Brandon Lowe flexed his muscle with a 458-foot homer to left-center. It was his fifth homer in his final eight video games, his twenty fourth of this season and the one hundred and fiftieth of his profession. The one longer homer by Lowe was a foot extra 5 years earlier to the day.
Caminero, who appeared to tweak his proper leg in an earlier at-bat, regarded nice lofting a ball over the leftfield fence with two outs within the ninth and jogging across the bases.
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