The Tampa Bay Rays got to come home Friday night.
Unfortunately, their baserunners didn’t get to.
The Rays dropped the first game of a three-game homestand to the Oakland A’s, 6-3. Oakland hit four home runs in the game, which lowered the Rays’ record to 15-18.
Oakland scored four times before the Rays ever came to bat, most of them scoring on a home run by Danny Valencia,who hit two out. They were his second and third homers of the season.
Also hitting home runs for Oakland were Khris Davis and Marcus Semien.
For the Rays, Jake Odorizzi lasted only four innings and gave up five earned runs. Steven Souza Jr. had two of the Rays’ five hits for the night. Tampa Bay was two-for-12 with runners in scoring position after going 6-for-42 on their recent road trip.
The Rays play the second game of the series tonight at 6:10 when Matt Andriese faces Kendall Graveman.
Tampa Bay had 12 more batters strike out, bringing their season total to 311 after 34 games. The Rays are on pace to set a major league record for strikeouts.
