Athletics:  4 Rays:  2

The first inning of this game turned out to be huge for the A’s.  In fact it was the inning that essentially won the game for them. Coco Crisp lead off the game with a double and the following batter, Stephen Drew, hit a single moving Crisp to third.  Yoenis Cespedes then popped up to record the first out of the inning and Seth Smith struck out swinging to record the second.  With Steohen Drew running on the 3-2 count, the catcher tried to throw him out at second, but instead, air mailed the ball and Coco scored from third.  Chris Carter then came up to bat and hit his 11th home run of the season and put the A’s up 3-0.

The A’s tried to add on more runs, Josh Reddick singled and Josh Donaldson was hit by a pitch, but George Kottaras struck out to end the inning.

Brandon McCarthy was shaky at first, allowing 2 walks, 2 hits and a hit by pitch through the first two innings. He loaded the bases in the second with no outs, but was able to get out of it by only allowing one run on a sacrifice fly.

The following inning Seth Smith got the run back when he hit his twelfth home run of the season to lead off the inning. The A’s would not score for the rest of the game.

McCarthy calmed down after the second, only allowing 2 more hits (a double and a home run) while walking none through the next five. His strike out total was seven today, he walked two and gave up four hits and two runs.

Sean Doolittle pitched the eighth, he did not allow a base runner and struck out two. Grant Balfour pitched a clean ninth, struck out one and record his fourteenth save of the season.

A’s Extras:

• The slumping Josh Reddick was moved down to the sixth spot today, he went 3-4 with a double.
• Coco Crisp also had a big day, going 3-4 with two doubles.  He did get caught stealing in the seventh.