Tampa Bay Rays’ Randy Arozarena acknowledges the crowd from the dugout after hitting a two-run home run during the eighth inning at Tropicana Field in St Petersburg on Sat Apr 8, 2023 (AP News photo)

A’s Blanked By Tampa Bay 11-0

By Barbara Mason

Saturday afternoon the Oakland A’s (2-6) played the Tampa Bay Rays (8-0) in game two of their three game series. Friday Oakland dropped game one 9-5 amid a flurry of Ray home runs. The A’s did have more hits than Tampa Bay did but they had trouble stringing hits together and bringing runners home. They were looking to even the series Saturday but were lambasted by the Rays in an 11-0 laugher at Tropicana Field in St Petersburg.

This game was scoreless through three innings. In the fourth inning the Rays got a couple of runs off a single from Isaac Paredes sending Brandon Lowe and Wander Franco home for a 2-0 lead.

Tampa Bay began to pile it on in the fifth and sixth innings. They scored seven times taking a 9-0 lead. A Randy Arozarena single brought Manuel Margot and Francisco Mejia home and the Rays were just getting started. Brandon Lowe would score his second run of the game when Paredes was hit by a pitch.

This gave the Rays a 5-0 lead. The sixth inning did not get any better for the Oakland defense giving up another four runs. Tampa Bay had a couple of home runs; one a solo from Margot and another from B. Lowe with two runners on base for the 9-0 lead.

In the eighth inning the Rays had their third home run of the game courtesy of Arozarena with a runner on base for the final 11-0 score. This was the eighth win a row for the Rays to start the season.

The A’s could only manage three hits in this game. They sent ace Shintaro Fujinami to the mound going 4.1 innings allowing three hits and five earned runs. Oakland would send four relief pitchers to the mound in the losing effort.

Tomorrow the A’s will finish up this series in Tampa Bay. James Kaprielian will take the mound for the A’s and for Tampa Bay Drew Rasmussen will get the nod. First pitch is scheduled for 10:10 AM.