Tampa Bay Rays defeat Oakland Athletics 8-4 – MLB Update
The Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Oakland Athletics 8-4 in the first game of the three-game series at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida on Friday, August 5 to take a 1-0 lead.
The Rays scored three runs each in the bottom of the fifth and sixth, producing a lead over the Oakland Athletics. The Rays also scored in the bottom of the fourth and bottom of the eighth to cement eight runs that provided them their 59th win
in this season.
Robinson Chirinos grounded out to pitcher, scoring Ben Zobrist the first run of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning. Evan Longoria followed with his line drive RBI single, Casey Kotchman added an RBI single while Matt Joyce joined with his grounder
to left, allowing Kotchman to score the third run in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Zobrist added another RBI, this time in the bottom of the sixth, in which B.J. Upton also scored an RBI single to elevate the lead to 7-2. Upton also contributed an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning.
The Rays’ starter Jeff Niemann, on the other hand held the Athletics scoreless until the top of the sixth when he allowed a homer to Coco Crisp. Niemann gave away two more runs in the bottom of the ninth, including a homer to Hideki Matsui. This hit did
not down his momentum but Chris Pennington hit for an RBI that ended Niemann’s spell.
Giving four runs and eight hits in just over eight innings could have caused him a major blow but he managed to get his sixth win in a passionate manner, tossing 119 pitches.
"It's tough, you know," Niemann said. "Joe gave me every chance possible, I think, to finish that game. It just wasn't in the cards."
The A’s starter Guillermo Moscoso given away four runs over six hits and walked three over four innings.
"We gave ourselves some holes on the road that we have to comeback from and it's not a great recipe for success," Oakland manager Bob Melvin said.
The A’s have a poor season, as they have lost 63 games so far. They are among the few teams who have not made a considerable win in this season.
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