By Morris Phillips

OAKLAND–The A’s were having a weekend to their liking, dominating all the high leverage moments against the Rays, and pocketing a pair of wins in the process.

Then the fifth inning arrived, and the similarities between these two, scrappy small-market teams became readily apparent.

Simply, the Rays became the A’s.

Down 3-0, and facing the possibility of a sweep at the hands of the A’s, Tampa Bay responded, first getting a three-run homer from Wily Adames to tie it, and then a tie-breaking solo shot from Mike Brousseau in the sixth to sneak past Oakland, 4-3 at the Coliseum.

While neither team will scare opponents with a dominant, offensive attack, the A’s and Rays will shock opponents with big hits in big moments, and in this case, the Rays took their turn with the game on the line on Sunday.

“Home runs can make a lot of questions go away,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “The offense has been kind of grinding, battling through a little bit of a tough stretch here. But those home runs can really help alleviate questions after the game. So I know it’s one swing of the bat, but when you’ve got some guys on, it’s huge.”

The A’s settled Friday night’s opener with Seth Brown’s walk-off job in the ninth. Then on Saturday, Brown came up big again as his home run and RBI single gave the A’s a pair of two-run leads. But Sunday was the defending AL Champs response, and they made it stick to avoid the sweep.

“We felt pretty good at 3-0, but they’re a team that comes back,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “They’re scrappy like we are, and its probably gonna go down to the end, it did.”