MidValleySports.Com

By Tim Byrnes

The Athletics were destined to have a difficult time in St. Petersburg against the AL-leading Tampa Bay Rays but being swept for the 11th time this season still hurts. The team seems to have devolved into a swing-happy bunch, trying to push meaningless stats totals across the finish line, and it isn’t a good look.

(Rays: 2-1)
The Athletics went down (0-2) in the count of 14 at-bats, managing just a double and three singles and wasted a rare “quality start” for pitcher Jack Perkins.

Perkins flipped a switch and went from struggling pitcher to throwing a career-high 6 2/3 innings, allowing just four hits, and an earned run.

The Athletics bullpen had a great series with an era under 2.00, but closer Elvis Alvarado (L 5-4, 4.14) put back-to-back pitches in the same location and AL-home run leader Junior Caminero made him pay, with a walk-off solo bomb and an A’s 2-1 defeat.

The lone A’s run came when Henry Bolte and Jeff McNeil had back-to-back singles and Bolte scored on a Ty Johnson wild-pitch.

(Rays: 4-3)
Junior Caminero, Jonny DeLuca, and Chandler Simpson opened the Tampa Bay first with three consecutive doubles off of Athletics starter Brady Basso for a quick 2-0 lead.

A Nick Fortes RBI-double, and a Ryan Vilade RBI-single extended the lead to 4-0 after two innings and their run total held up in the 4-3 Athletics loss. Basso (L 1-3, 4.50) lasted only 2 2/3 innings but the bullpen held up for the remainder of the game.

Tommy White fought back from an (0-2) count, winning a 10-pitch battle to open the third and homered for the A’s first run. Henry Bolte followed three batters later with his own solo-shot, and the A’s cut the lead in half at 4-2.

Shea Langeliers added an RBI-single in the sixth, that scored McNeil from third, but the A’s failed to score again.

White led the A’s at the plate, going 3-for-4 with the home run.

(Rays: 10-1)
An Athletics series isn’t complete without a blowout loss, and the A’s didn’t disappoint…well, they did disappoint but I digress.

The bats went back to sleep for the A’s and ended the series with 30 (0-2) counts at the plate (31%). Only another solo home run by Butler kept the Athletics from their 10th shutout-loss of the season, but the team still lost 10-1.

A microcosm of the Athletics 2026 season occurred in the third when at the plate: they managed a single, a walk, and three stolen bases, and yet still failed to score.

Starter Jeffrey Springs (L 4-14, 6.18) actually started this game with three uncharacteristically good innings, but he completely melted down and allowed six earned runs in the fourth.

At the risk of “glossing” the Rays greatness the inning went: {double, walk, walk, force out, single, HBP, double, single} and it was 6-0, giving fans everywhere a flashback to the infamous Yankees game.

Earlier in the season, the Yankees successfully put 12 consecutive batters aboard and scored twelve runs before the Athletics retired the side.

A scary incident in the bottom of the eighth inning when Denzel Clarke dove for a Liam Hicks single. Clarke got back up, took two steps, grabbed at his leg and he fell back down.

Manager Mark Kotsay chose “NOT” to check on his talented center fielder, who had just returned off the injured list recently, and it is a snapshot of the indifference of Kotsay the Manager.

He didn’t send out the trainer to make sure that Clarke wasn’t just “manning-up” through a problematic injury as he stood on the step doing nothing.

It was lazy, a danger to his player health, and ownership should take notice when making off-season changes.

Next: 9/20 410pm pst @ Guardians: Progressive Field, Cleveland Ohio