Game 7 Oakland A A outplays Tampa Bay Rays 6 3

Game #7 Oakland A: A outplays Tampa Bay Rays 6-3 win

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Don’t miss the 2022 Oakland A’s.

The rebuilding A’s completed a series win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday, beating them 6-3 for their third win in four days at Tropicana Field.

*** Click here to revisit today’s game thread! ***

How well Oakland will do in the next six months’ marathon remains to be seen, but they’re making some noise early on. A week into the season they are above the .500 mark despite playing away against a pair of expected rivals and at least the opponents have to take them seriously.

Today was a perfect example as the A’s simply outplayed the other club. Their pitchers chewed through efficient innings, including starters and bullpen. Their hitters string together multiple runs-scoring rallies, with some hard contacts and productive situation-at-bats. Their defense made more plays while the Rays made a crucial mistake.

Oakland is trying all sorts of things on their lineup to see what works, and so far a lot is going well. They changed the batting order again and missed a few more runs, and on the pitching side, a new assist earned his first career save.

Timely hitting

For four straight innings, the A’s put runners on base and then did something about it, either with a clutch hit or a productive out to drive someone home.

It started in the 2nd inning. A pair of singles sets the table and with two outs on the board Cristian Pache grounded a sharp single in the middle. That would have been enough for an RBI alone, but Tampa Bay had to take a costly stumble on defense to make matters worse. One outfielder jingled the pickup and then another outfielder continued bobbing and by the time they got the ball in Pache he had sprinted all the way around the bases for a little league homer.

The game was classified as a single and error, but there were still three runs on the scoreboard. Pache completed the route in 15.90 seconds, the A’s fastest home-to-home trip since Adam Rosales in 2017, although of course Rosales recorded that time after hitting a homer over the wall, per official scorer David Feldman.

Was Pache tired after this race for bags? “No, I’m still young,” he said, via SF Chronicle’s Matt Kawahara.

After this demonstration of sheer rush, Oakland turned up the power in the 3rd inning. With a runner first Sean Murphy crushed a ball to dead center, narrowly missed a homer and settled for an RBI double. His exit speed of 114.0 mph on this rocket is the highest of his career and one of the Dozen or so highest in MLB so far this season.

He hit it so hard it sailed over the Platinum Glove defender Kevin Kiermaier, who usually catches up on everything. Kiermaier had high praise for Murphy after the game, via Team Insider Martin Gallegos:

“He has stupid power. He was locked up and boy can he backspin the ball really well and hit the ball really hard. I like my chances more often than not, but big ole jackasses like him, man, I tip my hat. I wish I had that power.”

This poses a problem, however. Murphy just earned the nickname Cakes for his critically acclaimed butt, but now an opponent just calls him Big Ol’ Donkey. What do we do?

There you are!

OK, back to the game. In the 4th inning, the A’s scored again, this time using just one hit. Walk, single, walk charged the bases with an out, and a simple contact did the job. Chad Pinder hitting a grounder just soft enough to avoid a double play Tony Kemp added some nifty base runs to ensure only one out was recorded and the runner scored from the third point.

The 5th inning was a similar situation. Single, on foot, single loaded, nobody outside, and a grounder passing Kevin Smith brought one home. The Rays completed the double play this time, but even that wasn’t enough to keep the run from scoring. All Smith had to do was hit it anywhere, and he succeeded. Sure, the rally could have been even bigger! But it could have fizzled out, and making money in one run helped keep the pressure on.

Oakland went okay for the rest of the day, but those six runs held for the win. It wasn’t a slugfest, but they lined up baserunners and kept getting through with clutch contact at key moments, in a way the 2021 team often didn’t.

And an extra note for Smith, who finally scored his first goal of the year after starting 0-16. He singled and walked, scoring both times, producing a run with his GIDP and playing good defense at third base.

Efficient pitching

Bet on an early lead, the A’s pitching staff never let the opponent fight back into the game. They haven’t missed a ton of bats with just four strikeouts, but neither have they offered free help since no walks were given out all day. It only took 106 pitches between the starter and three helpers to get through all nine innings.

This starter was Cole Irvin, who gave a quality performance. He was perfect in five of the first six innings with just a small problem in the second that led to a run, and he put the team down to just five pitches in the sixth. The rays finally reached him in the 7th, when Brandon Lowe smashed a two-run homer, but by that point Oakland already had a comfortable lead.

  • Irvin: 6⅓ ip, 3 runs, 2 Ks, 0 BB, 1 HR, 5 hits, 71 pitches

Tampa Bay couldn’t do anything against the left-hander for most of the day, although they started connecting for harder contact towards the end of his outing. By then it was too late as the A’s absorbed Lowe’s punch and then turned to their bullpen to finish it off.

The rescuers closed the door with little resistance, recording eight outs while only two runners managed to reach base. Domingo Acevedo stopped the momentum in the 7th after Lowes Dinger, then AJ Puk worked around a single in 8th and Dany Jimenez sealed 9th, though a misguided runner made first. That was Jimenez’s first MLB career, in his fifth career MLB appearance, and it was him surprised and excited to get the call for the opportunity.

It’s not the flashiest boxing result of all time, especially compared to the Rays’ pitchers hitting a dozen batters, but it was just what Oakland needed today. With the lead in hand, they didn’t nibble and give the opponent extra chances, but instead challenged every batsman. They didn’t beat each other and neither could the other team beat them.

defensive support

The pitchers had some help, however, as the A’s defense put up a few highlights. The star of tonight’s show was Billy McKinneywho made some big plays in right field.

In the 2nd inning, Irvin was in a jam and led with a double and two singles. One run was already home and two more were on base with no one outside. The next hitter flew out to the right and the runners tried to catch and move forward, but McKinney wouldn’t let that happen.

That double play changed the innings and didn’t quite end the rally, but drained it significantly. Instead of second and third with one out, he finished third with two outs, and four pitches later Irvin escaped without further trouble.

Additional hat tip for 2B referees Hunter Wendelstedtwho was thrown to the ground but still made the exclamation in the middle of the fall!

Extend.

McKinney later struck again. In the 8th inning, with a runner first and nobody out, he chased a fly ball in foul territory and made a brilliant sliding catch. For the second time in the game, the Rays had a promising start to an inning but were then thrown back by a McKinney jewel.

He moved to 1st base at 9th and was accused of a mistake there, though not a egregious one. He was too far from the bag for a grounder, and when the second baseman got there, McKinney couldn’t get back in time to hit the runner. That’s a common mistake for a new first baseman and something he’ll surely learn from as he gains experience on the position, and anyway the runner was stranded later on.

None of McKinney’s plays directly stopped a run like throwing someone on the plate, but they stopped Tampa Bay from building bigger threats. It’s the kind of defensive support that can quietly make the difference in a 6-3 game.

Game set victory

The A’s came into Tropicana Field as underdogs and went home with a series win. They won a landslide win in the opening game and then had two more solid wins, and even in their one loss they made it to the extras and led in the 10th inning. In the three wins, they allowed a total of seven runs, and over the four games, Oakland’s lineup combined 31 goals.

Best of all, they’re fun. Everyone contributes, from the officiating veterans to the new rookies, from offense to defense to every corner of the pitching team, and even the game they lost was a blast. The wins are a nice bonus and hopefully they’ll go further, but we don’t need to get too caught up in the early standings to enjoy what we’re seeing. They’re hungry and just a week into the start of the rebuild season, they’re already starting to grow.