[Art Deco]

Game 1: Alexis Carmona made his Rays debut and it was a roaring success as he went six scoreless innings to lead the Rays to a 2-0 win in Oakland. The veteran righty was in control most of the way and finished 6 4 0 0 1 6 to get his first Rays win and 5th of the season. He did have some trouble in the 6th with men on 1st and 3rd and nobody out but got a 2-6-3 double play with the runner on 3rd holding and then a fly ball to finish the inning and his day. Bob Sirna and Jose Alvarado were fine in the 7th and 8th but Jordan Diaz really made it an adventure in the 9th, going infield single-strikeout-walk-strikeout-walk-strikeout to end the game with the bases loaded and pick up save #11. The offense struggled to get anything going against the A's Jake Estes, but in the 4th Nate Clark singled, stole second, went to third on a deep fly ball and scored on Victor de Jesus' fly ball, and then in the 8th Rodolfo Rivas had a 2-out RBI double for the second run.

MLB News: Pittsburgh's had a forgettable season, going 31-64, but Mike Walsh gave them something to remember tonight with a no-hitter in a 2-0 win over Milwaukee. Walsh went 9 0 0 0 1 8 on 108 pitches in his gem.

Game 2: A near carbon copy of yesterday's game as the Rays topped Oakland 3-1 behind another strong start. Today's gem came from Jon Hayes, who went 7 4 0 0 1 7 to improve to 10-6, 3.75. Jose Alvarado ran into some trouble in the 8th, walking a couple, giving up a hit and wild-pitching in a run. Tim Siqueiros rescued him from that jam and got the first two outs in the 9th before putting a man on with a lefty due, so Alexander Beltre came in and got the strikeout to end the game for his 3rd Rays save. Again it took until the 4th for the offense to break through with the big hit a Dayle Jenkins triple which drove in a run with him coming home on Rodolfo Rivas' single. Will Quintana picked up his first MLB extra-base hit and first MLB RBI with a double in the 5th to score Bo Angeac, who had also doubled. And that was it the rest of the way although Quintana nearly had another RBI late but Victor de Jesus was thrown out at the plate.

Game 3: A strange game. It was shaping up like the last two nights with the Rays leading 3-0 in the 5th on a 2-run Jasson Dominguez HR (#25) and a Nate Clark RBI double and Jon Soranno was 1-hitting Oakland through 4. But in the 5th Soranno suddenly couldn't get anyone out, and the turnstiles started spinning for Oakland. Throw in a key Jaiden Hardaway error on a dropped popup in short right and Danny Medina hitting a man with the bases loaded in relief, and 3-0 Rays was 6-3 Oakland when the dust settled on their way to a 6-5 win. The start was Soranno's third poor one in his last four as he ended 4.1 5 6 3 4 1. Medina pitched well aside from the hit batter going 2 2/3 scoreless with 4 whiffs, and Chris Hicks had a shutout 8th. The offense dried up after the 5th and heading into the 9th they only had 3 hits on the day before Hardaway beat out an infield single with one out and Bo Angeac homered (#13) to bring him home to make the final score a little more respectable.

Game 4: After yesterday's back-and-forth game today played out like the first two games of the series: a low-scoring Rays win. Today's verdict was 4-2 Tampa Bay behind a decent if not terribly convincing outing from Andy Aparicio. He went 7 7 2 2 1 3 and had to get out of jams on several occasions, but gutted it out to go 12-4, 3.83. The bullpen was lights-out as Tim Siqueiros and Jordan Diaz had 1-2-3 innings to finish off the A's with Diaz grabbing save #12. The offense was sluggish but scored enough, with Luis Corpus singling in Jaiden Hardaway for their first run in the 5th to tie the game, and Jasson Dominguez went yard with a man on for #26 in the 6th to put them ahead to say. Connor Kirkley added #8 and his first homer since coming off the IL for some insurance in the 9th.

Team record: 66-32. Next up: An off-day, then we head down the coast to take on the Dodgers for a pair.