The Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays continued their series this evening at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento. Lefty Jacob Lopez took the start for the A’s against righty Shane Baz for the Rays.
Lopez sent the first six Rays down in order. Tyler Soderstrom led of the bottom of second inning with a base hit. Colby Thomas doubled into the centerfield gap and Soderstrom scored from first to put the A’s on the board first.
Hernaiz walked on four pitches but Lawrence Butler, demoted to the seventh slot in the order, grounded into a double play.
Brent Rooker opened the bottom of the fourth by getting plunked with a curve ball right on the visor. Soderstrom followed with a double down the right field line, moving Rooker to third with no outs. Thomas got his second RBI of the game with a sacrifice fly to score Rooker from third. Soderstrom took third on the play. Butler redeemed himself this a-b with a double down the left field line to score Soderstrom and bring the A’s lead to 3-0. Butler scored from second on a misplayed pop up to Rays catcher Nick Fortes. On what could be considered both a physical and mental error (by more than one player) Fortes misplayed a pop-up that landed between the pitchers mound and the third base line. In theory anybody BUT Fortes should have made the play. That gave the A’s a 4-0 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth Shea Langeliers doubled with one out. Rooker walked. The runners both advanced on a Soderstrom ground out to the right side, and Langeliers used his non-catcher-like speed to score on a wild pitch. That brought the A’s lead to 5-0 at the end of five.
Lopez was finished after completing seven innings. His final line was 7.0 innings, zero earned runs on four hits, no walks and nine strikeouts. Justin Sterner took over in the eighth. He set them down in order on just seven pitches.
Colby Thomas singled and stole second in the bottom of the eighth. Hernaiz walked and Lawrence Butler singled to score Thomas. That extended the A’s lead to 6-0 heading into the ninth inning.
Tyler Ferguson replaced Sterner in the ninth. He walked Yandy Díaz and Brandon Lowe. Junior Caminero grounded into a force at second. Everson Pereira struck out swinging to end the game. Ferguson bent but did not break protecting Lopez’ seven-inning 6-0 shutout!