Corey Kluber struck out seven in six shutout innings, Manuel Margot hit a two-out, two-run single in the eighth inning and the Tampa Bay Rays completed a three-game sweep of the host Oakland Athletics, 3-0 on Wednesday afternoon.
J.P. Feyereisen, Colin Poche and closer Andrew Kittredge tag-teamed with Kluber on a four-hitter, helping the Rays overcome a stellar pitching effort by Frankie Montas while sending the A’s to a sixth straight defeat on a winless homestand.
Neither Kluber nor Montas was around for the eighth inning, in which A’s reliever Zach Jackson (0-1) walked Brett Phillips to ignite a three-run uprising.
Two outs later, Jackson also walked Randy Arozarena and hit Brandon Lowe with a pitch, loading the bases for Margot, who shot a single into right field to make it 2-0.
Lowe took third on the hit, from where he was awarded home plate when Jackson’s replacement, Domingo Acevedo, committed a balk.
Montas had worked the first seven innings, shutting out the Rays on four hits. He walked one and struck out six.
Feyereisen (2-0) was credited with the win after pitching 1 1/3 innings. Kittredge needed just 10 pitches in a 1-2-3 ninth for his fourth save, delivering Tampa Bay’s sixth win in its last eight games.
Kluber, who was coming off a six-inning, one-hit effort in a victory over the Minnesota Twins, limited the A’s to three hits over the first six innings. He walked one.
The closest Oakland came to scoring was in the second, when Seth Brown bombed a one-out triple to center field. But Kluber struck out Stephen Piscotty and Chad Pinder to strand the baserunner.
The A’s put two on with one out in the fourth when Jed Lowrie singled and Sean Murphy walked. But again Kluber bore down, fanning Brown before getting Piscotty on a fly to center.
Margot, with two singles, and Isaac Paredes, who singled and doubled, were the game’s lone participants with multiple hits in a contest that featured just three extra-base hits.
Arozarena also doubled for the Rays, who out-hit the A’s 6-4.
–Field Level Media