Yandy Diaz went 3-for-4 with a homer and two RBIs, Junior Caminero swatted a three-run blast and the Tampa Bay Rays scored eight runs in the eighth inning to rally for a 10-6 victory over the Athletics on Monday night at West Sacramento, Calif.
Jonny DeLuca had three hits and scored twice and Jonathan Aranda had two hits in the 12-batter eighth inning as the Rays recorded their seventh consecutive victory. Chandler Simpson had two hits and two steals for Tampa Bay.
Zack Gelof homered for the Athletics and joined Henry Bolte, Lawrence Butler and Jeff McNeil with two hits apiece.
The Athletics’ Jacob Lopez tossed seven solid innings before the bullpen blew a four-run lead. He gave up two runs, five hits and one walk while striking out five.
Tampa Bay’s Freddy Peralta allowed three runs and six hits over six innings in his second start since being acquired from the New York Mets. He struck out five and walked one.
It took just four pitches for the Rays to cut their four-run deficit to one en route to improving to 7-0 on their road trip.
Diaz singled on the second pitch from Seth Johnson and Aranda singled on the next pitch. Caminero then launched a first-pitch slider 410 feet to left center to trim the Athletics’ lead to 6-5.
Ryan Vilade walked to end Johnson’s outing and DeLuca greeted Jose Suarez (1-4) with a single to right. Simpson then delivered a bullet single to right to knot the score.
DeLuca and Simpson pulled a double steal and Nick Fortes walked to load the bases. Walls then drilled a two-run single to right to give the Rays an 8-6 lead.
Diaz later hit a sacrifice fly and Aranda added an RBI single to end the uprising.
Diaz slugged the second pitch of the game from Lopez 439 feet over the fence in center. It was his sixth leadoff blast of the season and 27th of his career.
The A’s answered in the bottom of the first as Tyler Soderstrom stroked a run-scoring double and later scored on the front end of a double steal with Carlos Cortes.
The Athletics made it 3-1 in the fifth when Gelof launched Peralta’s fastball 456 feet over the wall in left center.
Tampa Bay pushed across a run in the seventh as DeLuca reached on a leadoff tapper with catcher Jonah Heim’s throw going into right field. Simpson’s bunt single put runners on the corners before Fortes’ groundout scored DeLuca.
In the seventh, Gelof’s double over the head of DeLuca scored Bolte and McNeil’s sacrifice fly drove in Donovan Walton. Jacob Wilson doubled in Gelof later in the inning off Chris Roycroft (1-0) to account for the 6-2 lead.
