A's Beat Rays in Extra Innings

The A's had Jeffrey Springs on the mound Tuesday night in Tampa against his former club, and the southpaw tossed 5 1/3 innings, and allowed two earned runs on four hits and three walks while punching out four opposing hitters. It was the second straight day that the A's secured a win over Tampa by tossing out a pitcher they acquired from the Rays during the offseason.

After Springs worked a clean first inning against his former teammates, Christopher Morel would launch his seventh homer on the year to open up the scoring for Tampa in the second inning. Brandon Lowe would also take Springs deep the following inning to give Tampa Bay an early 2-0 lead.

Following a big return game last night from Shea Langeliers, he would smoke one off the wall for a double in the top of the fourth to set up a Max Muncy two-run shot to tie the game. The home run was Muncy's sixth of the season. Langeliers would then come up in his next at-bat in the sixth and go deep yet again to give the A's a 3-2 lead.

Rays' right-hander Shane Baz was able to toss seven innings for the Rays, and gave up all three of the runs to this point, but was able to record a career-high 11 punch-outs to keep the Rays in the game. Baz only handed out one free pass in the game as well.

In Justin Sterner's return from his minor league stint (which included time on the IL), he'd allow a homer to Danny Jansen which would tie the game in the seventh. All three Rays runs would come on solo homers on Tuesday. Sean Newcomb and Michael Kelly would also make appearances and would allow a combined three hits but no runs, forcing extra innings.

In extra innings, the A's would elect to have Denzel Clarke bunt to move Colby Thomas to third with one out. Max Schuemann followed that up with a walk, and then Austin Wynns would pinch-hit for Lawrence Butler with left-hander Mason Montgomery on the mound.

Wynns would send one to left field to score Thomas on a sac-fly, but the throw in was cut off near second base, and flipped towards the bag in an attempt to nab Schuemann tagging up. Instead, the throw sailed into center.

Schuemann sprinted for third and blew past the stop sign, making his way towards home. He was out by a good bit and seemingly tagged in the face, but the A's challenged the ruling on the field for possible obstruction. The ruling on the field ended up being upheld, ending the A's top of the 10th with a 4-3 lead.

The A's would bring in closer Mason Miller in the bottom of the inning, and he struck out Brandon Lowe and got Junior Caminero to fly out to the warning track before intentionally walking Jonathan Aranda. With two outs and a 2-2 count, the umpires called Miller for a balk, advancing the runners to second and third. Miller got Josh Lowe to swing through a slider with the next pitch, securing the win for the Athletics. The save is Miller's 17th of the season.

The A's will be looking to pick up the series sweep on Wednesday with Mitch Spence on the mound. Spence is coming off a solid start in New York, and will look to do so again against the Yankees' division rival tomorrow. The A's will face Ryan Pepiot, who currently holds a solid 3.36 ERA this season.