Oakland Athletics pitcher Paul Blackburn throws against the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning at the Oakland Coliseum on Thu Jun 15, 2023 (AP News photo)

On a sunny afternoon in Oakland, CA, at the Oakland Coliseum. The Tampa Bay Rays (50-22) and Oakland A’s (19-52) had their final game in this four game series and it was everything that fans expect from an Oakland game this season.

The scoring happened early for Tampa Bay as they opened the second inning with two singles from Harold Ramirez and Luke Raley, then a third straight single by Issac Paredes scored Ramirez. Right after that Taylor Walls hit a double and scored Raley, it was 2-0 before you knew it.

Paul Blackburn who started on the mound for Oakland took these two runs on the chin and struck the next three batters out to get out the inning, but the damage was done. The Rays were up two early in this game and it’d be a rough thing to come back from for Oakland.

Tampa even got themselves what they thought was a needed insurance home run by Manuel Margot to make it 3-0 Rays, Margot’s third home run of the season and all three have come against the A’s. Rays pitcher Taj Bradley was the highlight for the first five innings as he not only pitched four scoreless innings with only two hits, he struck out 11 out of the 13 batters he faced.

Bradley would’ve gone a couple innings more, but in the fifth the A’s had his number. Two walks put runners on base and an error got Estuery Ruiz on base and bases were loaded. A Ryan Noda single scored Smith and Seth Brown’s single would score Kemp and Ruiz which tied everything up at three a piece.

The next three innings were a battle of bullpens and no team had the upper hand, but by the eighth inning, the door was blasted open when Raley hit a one out, solo home run and the air was taken out of the park as soon as contact was made with the ball and the ballgame was over when Pete Fairbanks got his sixth save after returning from the 15-day IL with inflammation in the left hip.

Robert Stephenson got the winning decision for the Rays and Austin Pruitt was awarded the loss. Next game Friday at 6:45pm PT is game 1 of a three game series against the Philadelphia Phillies and on the mound for the A’s is JP Sears (1-3, 4.15) against Taijuan Walker (6-3, 4.67) for the Phillies.

The A’s are 19-52 so far this season and while the players battle on the field, the fans are battling the owner. The “reverse boycott” made headlines, but may not have made a dent in Fisher’s plans to move forward as he continues his talks with Vegas and the MLB.