Rays use balanced offense to defeat A's

*Photo from Athletics Nation*

   The Tampa Bay Rays don't have anyone outside of Wander Franco that jumps off the page as scary, but they still beat you in any way possible. Yandy Diaz homered, Franco drove in and scored a run, and the Rays defeated the Oakland Athletics with a 6-1 victory on Monday night in Oakland.

   After dropping 3 out of 4 games in a previous series against the A's, the Rays offense came out firing in this one, putting up 6 runs on 11 hits. It was also a welcome sign for the pitching staff, who had given up 17 runs in 13 innings prior to Monday's game.

   Rays manager Kevin Cash said of the win that "No doubt, want to get back to playing our style of baseball. We’re not used to having lopsided games against us, and today was a good start to pitch well, play some good defense behind our pitchers and get some timely hits."

   Diaz jumped on the A's early, giving the Rays a 1-0 lead with a solo home run to left field. In the second inning, the A's were able to tie things up by a 1-1 score, thanks to an RBI single by Chad Pinder. In the 3rd inning, a single plus error off the bat of Franco scored Diaz to put the Rays up 2-1. Franco then scored on an RBI single by Randy Arozarena, making it 3-1 Rays.

   In the 4th inning, Mike Zunino continued to build on the Rays lead, lacing an RBI single that scored Manuel Margot to make it 4-1 in favor of the Rays. Zunino then scored, making it a 5-1 Rays lead thanks to an RBI single from Franco. In the 5th, Kevin Kiermaier scored on an RBI double from Margot to make it a 6-1 game, ending the scoring.

   Cash said of the return of the offense that "We've got an offense that we expect a lot of big things from this year. Even though with key guys out we've still got some key guys in there and would expect that it's going to be a very deep, thick lineup that can wear pitching down, and I felt like we kind of did that tonight."

   Making the start for the Rays was Drew Rasmussen, who got the win to improve to 2-1. Rasmussen allowed one run on just one hit and one walk over 5 innings. The Rays bullpen held things from there, with scoreless appearances from Jason Adam, Phoenix Sanders, Ryan Thompson, and Andrew Kittredge.

   Daulton Jefferies got the start and the loss for the A's, falling to 1-4. Jefferies allowed 6 runs on 11 hits over 5 innings pitched. After he left, Oakland's bullpen kept things intact, with Domingo Acevedo, Sam Moll, and Adam Kolarek pitching in relief.

   Oakland manager Mark Kotsay said of the loss that "They're competing. You get focused on results sometimes as a player and it’s really a grind. You’re gonna go through stretches like this where you don’t have success. You just have to keep grinding. Keep working and believe in the process."

   Up next, the Rays and A's continue their series on Tuesday night, with Paul Blackburn to get the start for the A's, with Ryan Yarbrough in line to go for the Rays.