Field Level Media
Jun 22, 2019
Willy Adames collected three hits, including his seventh home run of the season, as the visiting Tampa Bay Rays evened their series with the Oakland Athletics with a 5-3 victory Friday night.
One night after the A's had rallied for four runs in the bottom of the ninth for a walk-off win, right-hander Emilio Pagan came on to retire the final two batters of the game, each representing the potential tying run, to snap Tampa Bay's four-game losing streak.
The loss ended Oakland's four-game winning streak.
The Rays never trailed in the game after scoring twice in the third inning against A's starter Tanner Anderson (0-2). Brandon Lowe drove in the first run with an RBI double and later scored on a passed ball.
Matt Olson's 12th homer of the season got the A's within 2-1 in the last of the third, but the Rays got it right back when Kevin Kiermaier led off the fourth with an infield single and eventually scored on a fielder's choice grounder.
Again the A's used a home run -- this one by Ramon Laureano, his 12th of the year -- to cut into their deficit in the last of the fourth, but again the Rays countered with one of their own on a solo homer by Adames, his seventh of the season, in the sixth.
One more time the A's got within one at 4-3 on doubles by Matt Chapman and Olson in the eighth, and one more time the Rays rebuffed the challenge on an RBI double by Lowe in the top of the ninth.
Lowe joined Adames with three hits for the Rays, who had lost three straight to the A's, including two in a row to close a three-game series at Tampa Bay last week.
Lowe also finished with two RBIs, while Adames scored twice.
Right-hander Andrew Kittredge pitched well in an "opener" role for the Rays, shutting out the A's on two hits in the first two innings.
Right-hander Austin Pruitt (1-0) was credited with the win after holding the A's to one run on four hits in three innings.
Anderson took the loss after having allowed three runs and seven hits in four innings. He walked one and struck out four.
Olson had three hits, and Khris Davis and Jurickson Profar two apiece for the A's, who learned earlier in the day that Thursday's starting pitcher, Frankie Montas, had been suspended 80 games for a failed drug test.
Both teams had 10 hits in the game.
--Field Level Media