By Morris Phillips

The A’s played it conventional with their pitching on Sunday, no surprise there. Trade acquisition Mike Fiers started five times in August, and twice so far in September, and the A’s won all seven, proving the old-fashioned, pitch deep into the ballgame starting pitcher still has a place among today’s compartmentalized baseball philosophies.

But Sunday wasn’t Fiers’ day, with the former Tiger slightly off his game while facing the red-hot Tampa Bay Rays, the A’s new dark horse competition for the final AL wild card spot.

“I felt like I couldn’t really get in a rhythm. I put the guys behind early and this game is big on momentum,” Fiers said.

Jed Lowrie’s fielding error stood out as the first blow to Fiers’ momentum, his bobble of Ji-Man Choi’s grounder screwed up what would of been an inning-ending double play. Instead, the next batter, C.J. Cron homered to give the Rays a 2-0, first inning lead.

Fiers walked three batters in the second, then escaped, via a double play and a groundout. In the fourth, Willy Adames homered to give Tampa Bay a 3-0 lead.

Fiers departed after four innings–his second shortest stint of his eight in Oakland–without any offensive support and destined for his first loss as an Athletic.

Meanwhile, the Rays went with their bullpen committee, and the combination of opener Diego Castillo, eventual winning pitcher Andrew Kittredge, Hunter Wood and Jaime Schultz were baffling to A’s hitters. That quartet pushed the Rays through the first seven innings, allowing two hits, the first coming with one out in the fifth inning.

“We called on some guys that hadn’t had a ton of work here recently and hadn’t pitched in tight situations recently, but they really did a nice job,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “It was fun to watch them how they really pieced it together.”

Emilio Pagan allowed a two-run triple to Brandon Lowe in the seventh, another blemish on the reliever’s string of recent, subpar appearances.  That stood as a minor footnote with the A’s trailing 5-0, but quickly became a big deal when Khris Davis delivered a ninth inning, grand slam that brought the A’s within a run before reliever Sergio Romo retired two batters to end it.

Instead of a critical win on a day the Yankees lost, the A’s settled for a one-run loss, and a rare series loss. With 12 games remaining, the A’s lead Tampa Bay by seven games in the quest for the second wild card. But Houston’s lead in the AL West grew to 4 1/2 games, and they failed to move any closer to the Yankees, with their 1 1/2 game lead for the right to host the wild card showdown on October 3.

The A’s concluded play against the AL East with the loss, only their 11th loss versus that division this season. Five of those 11 losses came at the hands of the Rays.

The A’s open their final homestand of the season on Tuesday at 7:05pm. Liam Hendricks and Daniel Mengden are scheduled as the opener and featured reliever entrusted with getting the club through at least four innings. Tyler Skaggs wll start for the Angels.