Rays Finish Off Series Sweep of A's Thanks to More Dominating Pitching
OAKLAND, Calif. — In nearly 25 years of Tampa Bay Rays baseball, one thing they've never done is sweep a series in Oakland. The Coliseum — and all of its other names through the years — has been a house of horrors.
Until Wednesday, that is.
The Rays completed a three-game sweep of the struggling A's on a sun-splashed Wednesday afternoon, winning 3-0 with the usual formula of late, more insanely good pitching and a big hit from Manuel Margot.
Veteran right-hander Corey Kluber pitched six scoreless innings for the Rays, allowing just three hits and striking out seven. But A's starter Frankie Montas matched him zero for zero, and by the time both were out of the game, it was still a scoreless tie.
"(Montas) was outstanding, but the good thing for us was that Kluber kind of went right with him and kept it right there,'' Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "It was really just a really strong pitching performance by both sides."
Montas pitched seven innings and allowed just four hits, and the Rays' hitters were glad to see him go, because they pounced on reliever Zach Jackson right away in the eighth inning.
Center fielder Brett Phillips led off the inning with a walk, and then went to second base on a wild pitch. Yandy Diaz grounded out, sending Phillips to third, and then designated hitter Wander Franco struck out. After a Randy Arozarena walk, Brandon Lowe was hit by a pitch, loading the bases with two outs.
Margot, who has eight hits in four May games, laced a single to right, scoring two runs. The third run came in on a balk call..
"I was just trying to produce," Margot said through a translator after the game. "I know that the previous at-bat, I had a chance to produce and I was unsuccessful. But this time I was a little bit more calm, a little bit more relaxed. I learned from my last at-bat, and that helped me be a little more relaxed for that one at-bat."
Rays reliever J.P. Feyereisen (2-0) pitched 1 1/3 innings scoreless innings to get the win, though he did give up a two-out single to Chad Pinson with two outs in the seventh. He had gone 28 batters without allowing a hit before then. Colin Poche got the last two outs in the eighth and Andrew Kittredge pitched a perfect ninth inning to get his fourth save of the season.
The Rays, who had lost three of four to Oakland at Tropicana Field the second series of the season from April 11-14, have now swept the A's five times in their history, but this was the first time they've ever done it on the West Coast.
They caught the A's at the right time, to be sure. They lost all six games on this homestand — the Cleveland Guardians also beat them three straight — and it was the first time that they've ever gone winless in a homestand of six games or more since moving to Oakland in 1968.
The Rays are 15-10 now, and Oakland is 10-15.
"There's some anger in there because they know we had opportunities to win games this homestand and we didn't get it done," A's manager Mark Kotsay said. "My whole focus in that group is to continue to keep the mindset that we're going to go out and win the day."
The A's drew a crowd of 4,838 on Wednesday — by far the largest of the series — and drew a combined 10,096 in the three games.
Tom Brew is the publisher of Inside The Rays, and has been with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation network for three years. He is an award-winning writer and editor who has spent most of his four-decade career at the Tampa Bay Times, Indianapolis Star and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has written four books.