The Oakland A’s fell just short of sweeping the defending AL champion Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday. The very sentence is praise with only faint damning.
The A’s took an early lead in their series finale but couldn’t hold on in a 4-3 loss to the Rays, with an unearned run making the difference in the final tally. Oakland still won the weekend series, and had already clinched the season series against a fellow postseason contender.
The day got off to a promising start, as the A’s got on the board first. Tampa Bay rookie Shane McClanahan kept Oakland’s lineup quiet for a while, but the second time through the order they broke through, just as they’d done when they faced him a couple weeks ago.