ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—Jose Siri made a tremendous catch in the top of the ninth inning and singled home the winning run in the bottom half as the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Oakland Athletics 4–3 on Wednesday night.
Amed Rosario doubled leading off the ninth against Michael Kelly (2–2), went to third on Alex Jackson’s sacrifice bunt, and scored on Siri’s hit.
“Unreal [catch], and then it’s like a storybook ending,” Rays starting pitcher Ryan Pepiot said.
Tampa Bay’s Pete Fairbanks (1–2) survived the ninth after allowing a leadoff double to Miguel Andújar. He retired the next three batters on balls all hit 102.3 mph or more, including Zack Gelof’s 107.7 mph drive to center that Siri caught with a leap.
Siri, through a translator, called his catch “pretty impressive.
“I was very concentrated and never took my eye off the ball,” he said.
Andújar had a fourth-inning sacrifice fly and put the Athletics up 2–1 with an RBI infield single in the sixth. He hit a three-run homer in Oakland’s 3–0 victory over the Rays on Tuesday night.
Tampa Bay won for the second time in nine games. Oakland has dropped 17 of its past 23 games.
Max Schuemann was on second when JJ Bleday singled to left in the eighth and, after getting the signal to try and score, stopped and returned to third when left fielder Randy Arozarena threw to the plate. When Jackson threw to second to retire Bleday, Schuemann broke for the plate and scored to draw Oakland even at 3–3.
Isaac Paredes had an RBI double in the seventh to give Tampa Bay a 3–2 lead.
Tampa Bay pulled even at 2–2 on pinch-hitter Jonathan Aranda’s sixth-inning, run-scoring single. The inning ended when Arozarena was thrown out by Scott Alexander on a straight steal attempt of home with Jackson, who is in a 0-for-25 slide, batting.
“Arozarena is a real aggressive player,“ Oakland Manager Mark Kotsay said. ”Thankfully, the dugout yelled loud enough for Scott to step off, and he made a smart baseball play.”
The Rays tied it 1–1 on Brandon Lowe’s RBI triple off Joey Estes in the fourth.
Estes, in his fourth start this season and sixth overall, allowed one run and two hits in five innings.
“I thought he had good stuff,” Mr. Kotsay said. “I thought he performed really well and gave us a chance to win the game.”
Pepiot gave up two runs, three hits, and struck out seven over 5 2/3 innings.
The game was delayed about 10 minutes with one out in the fifth inning when plate umpire Brian O’Nora departed. O'Nora appeared to have cold-like symptoms early on and got hit on the mask by a foul ball in the fourth.
