Tampa Bay Rays crush Oakland Athletics 4-1 in series finale – MLB Update
Tampa Bay Rays crushed the Oakland Athletics 4-1 at O.co Coliseum in Oakland, California on Wednesday, August 1 in the finale to earn a well deserved road trip series victory.
Oakland edged the Rays 4-3 in series opener and considering their recent form, it looked as if they will cruise to another stunning series sweep in front of their home crowd. Credit should be given to Tampa Bay, who used their resources extremely effectively
to turn the tables on their opponents.
Starting pitcher James Shields had one of the finest outings of his career on Tuesday to lead the Rays to an incredible 8-0 win to level series. Striking-out 11, he improved to 9-7 this season.
Alex Cobb continued the good work on Wednesday to grab his fifth win of the season. Rays’ starter gave up just four hits and a run in seven effective innings to help his side grab the second place on the American League East Division standings.
Relief pitcher Fernando Rodney gave up just a hit in the ninth for his 31st save of the season. Rays’ offence adopted a very aggressive approach right from the start of the play.
Matt Joyce had an RBI single to right and Desmond Jennings scored to put their side on their board. Carlos Pena doubled in the sixth and he added a solo home-run to right in the eighth to help the Rays end the game on an extremely positive note.
"Winning on the road is always more difficult," Pena said. "To come out of this road trip playing great ballclubs like the ones we did and win all three series is a great sign. It's a very positive sign. We want to ride this positive momentum."
"It's pretty spectacular," manager Joe Maddon said in a post game interview. "Before the trip everyone is talking 7-2. To me it's always about that night. To win each series is about as good as it gets right now."
A’s starter Jarrod Parker looked a bit uncomfortable on the mound as he gave up eight hits in six innings to take his fifth loss of the year.
Tags: