*Photo from the Mercury News*
Oakland Athletics star 3rd baseman Matt Chapman had been struggling to start the 2021 season. He may be starting to shake that off now. Chapman homered, Ramon Laureano doubled, and the Athletics defeated the Tampa Bay Rays with a 3-2 win Thursday afternoon to continue their good start to the season.
It was the Rays who got on the board first however, as Austin Meadows laced an RBI double to right field in the first inning to make it 1-0 Rays early. In the 3rd, Laureano tied the game for the A's with an RBI double to left field. In the 4th, Chapman hit a solo homer to left field to give Oakland a 2-1 lead. In the 5th, Brandon Lowe made it a 2-2 game with a solo homer of his own. In the 9th, Jed Lowrie scored on an RBI double from Chapman to make it 3-2 A's late, which they held on to.
A's manager Bob Melvin said of Chapman's game that "Usually swings like that can get you going in the right direction. And big hits too. Especially in a game that feels like it’s gonna be a one-run game and whoever gets the big hit from the eighth inning on is gonna end up winning it."
Chapman himself said of his big game that "I think I definitely have some good games right here to build on. And I think if I can just continue to work on what I’ve been doing these last few games, and get consistent with it, I can correct some of those bad habits I was creating earlier in the year."
Jake Diekman got the win for the A's, pitching a scoreless 8th inning, striking out one hitter. Chris Bassitt got the start, allowing two runs on 4 hits and one walk, striking out 9 hitters in 6 innings pitched. Yusmeiro Petit came on after Bassitt left and threw a scoreless 7th inning. Lou Trivino then shut down the Rays in the 9th for his 4th save of the season.
On the other side, Diego Castillo got the loss for Tampa Bay, pitching in the top of the 9th, allowing the RBI double from Chapman. Shane McClanahan got the start for the Rays, allowing two runs on 5 hits, striking out 5 hitters in 4 innings pitched. Luis Patino and Andrew Kittredge each then threw two scoreless innings each.
Rays manager Kevin Cash said of the loss that "Hopefully we're going to stop talking about this soon. I think we will. But the offense is just having a rough go right now. We've been pitched well, pitched tough. Saying that, we've got a good offense, and we're just in a little bit of a rut that we've got to find a way to get out. We’re going to start giving our pitchers a little bit of support here. We’ve asked a lot of our pitchers, some young ones, and they’ve really come up in a big way for us and just kept us in every single ballgame."
The Rays start a weekend series with the Houston Astros tonight, with Ryan Yarbrough getting the start for Tampa Bay. Oakland faces the Baltimore Orioles, with Mike Fiers making his season debut, coming off the 10 day IL.
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