Spence’s strong start not enough as Athletics fall to Rays

Will be looking for a win tomorrow

The Athletics fell to the Rays on Wednesday night at the Coliseum, losing a close 4-2 matchup that’ll put a bit more pressure on tomorrow’s finale as the A’s will hope to avoid losing a series three games to one. At least tonight had it’s exciting moments.

Oakland jumped out to the first lead of the game tonight. Facing Rays rookie right-hander Ryan Pepiot, A’s outfielder JJ Bleday launched the third pitch he saw over the right field wall for his 17th home run of the season:

There were a lot of questions surrounding Bleday entering the season after stalling with the Marlins and having a lackluster first year in Oakland. He has finally started to tap into that massive potential that made him the 4th overall pick in the 2019 draft. The only other center fielder in the American League with more home runs than Bleday is Yankees superstar Aaron Judge (Bleday is also tied with Red Sox center fielder Jarren Duran).

On the pitching side for the Athletics it was rookie Rule 5 pick Mitch Spence on the bump for his 17th start of the season. He had it going early in this one, striking out five Rays over the first four innings while allowing just a pair of singles. The rookie wasn’t invincible tonight though as Tampa tagged him for a pair of runs in the top of the fifth. It could have been worse after the first two batters of the frame reached second and third so Spence did well to mitigate the damage and not let things get out of hand quick.

Though he had just given up two runs and pitched five full innings, manager Mark Kotsay decided to let it ride with Spence. His pitch count was still manageable and it was as good a time as any to let Spence stay in and let him bounce back on his terms. He did just that, striking out the side of the sixth inning to seemingly put a gold star on his day.

Back on the other side of the ball, that Bleday home run would be most of the offense the bats could muster through the first five innings against Pepiot (in addition to a Seth Brown walk). But like with Spence, Pepiot is a rookie with not a long of major league experience going deep into games and facing a major league lineup a third time through. Now was the time to strike.

Oakland finally got to Tampa’s young huler in the bottom of the sixth. Outfielder Lawrence Butler sparked it with a one-out double, and Brent Rooker cashed in with an RBI knock to tie this game up 2-apiece:

That’s Rooker’s 84th RBI of the season and he’s on his way to crossing that 100-RBI mark. It’s still baffling how he wasn’t elected an All-Star after improving on last year’s All-Star campaign. Rooker truly is one of the biggest finds in recent Athletics history.

With a brand new ballgame, Kotsay elected to roll the dice twice in one night with Spence. He was after all only at 84 pitches while already setting a new career-high in strikeouts with nine on the evening. He had it going. This time things went the other way for the team. While Spence would manage to finish the seventh inning out and tie a career-high in innings pitched, it wasn’t before Tampa Bay center fielder Jose Siri, the culprit for last night’s one and only run, hit his second home run in two days, this one a 2-run shot to double the Rays’ lead. Can they please sit him in tomorrow’s finale? Please?

After Spence we got a big league debut! Right-hander JT Ginn, only recalled just a couple of days ago, made it into the game for the top of the eighth inning. And not only did the rookie toss a scoreless inning, he collected his first three career strikeouts to introduce himself to the big leagues, all K’s the swinging variety.

What a debut and welcome to the show JT! Following that stellar first inning Kotsay rolled the dice for the third time tonight, sending Ginn back out there for the top of the ninth. And while it wasn’t as flashy as his first frame, he still got the job done with a perfect ninth to keep this a 2-run game and give the bats a chance at a comeback.

Positive debut aside, the good guys were still down a couple runs, and they were down to their final six outs against a Rays bullpen that’s blown one out of every three save opportunities. Things started well enough in the bottom of the eighth when Miguel Andujar collected a one-out single to bring the tying run to the plate. Then the worst possible mistake happened next. After the ball got by the first baseman and dribbled away from him, Andujar may have made the slightest hesitation towards second base. With Tampa’s catcher backing up a quick throw to first base with a tag and Andujar was called out. Even an A’s challenge didn’t overturn the questionable call and Kotsay needed to have words:

There wouldn’t be any more rolling of the dice for Kotsay tonight after that ejection. That took any momentum the A’s had accumulated and snuffed it out like a flame on the beach. The A’s went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth to secure their 73rd loss of the season.

Well there were definitely some major positives from tonight’s loss. Mitch Spence continues to show growth as he hit a career-high in K’s and matched his innings high. JJ Bleday continues to look like a steal compared to what the Athletics surrendered to get him. Lawrence Butler is settling into that leadoff spot really nicely. Rooker is still a stud with the bat and the rookie reliever JT Ginn had one heck of a debut. You can’t win ‘em all but you can grow from them all. I think we saw some more growth from these young baseball players tonight.

The club hasn’t lost the series yet. The team can still split this four-game series with a win in tomorrow’s finale. It’ll be an interesting pitching matchup as the Athletics are set to send out the rising Osvaldo Bido for his seventh start of the year in the big leagues. Tampa Bay will counter with veteran lefty Jeffrey Springs, who due to injury is about to make just his fifth start of the season.