Rays get a good start and a lot of hits to beat A's, snap skid

Marc Topkin, Tampa Bay Times on Aug 12, 2025

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

WEST SACRAMENTO, California — The Rays needed a strong start from Ryan Pepiot Monday against a pesky A’s lineup, and they pretty much got it — at least until he allowed a three-run homer in the seventh inning.

Even better, they got a show of power from their offense, including back-to-back homers by Brandon Lowe (his 23rd) and Junior Caminero (his 33rd) as part of a 15-hit outburst.

Best off all, coming off a lost weekend in Seattle, they got a much-needed victory, 7-4 over the A’s.

The win improved the Rays to 58-62 and kept them 5 ½ games from the third American League wild-cart spot, currently held by the Yankees. It also gave them a victory in their first visit to Sutter Health Park, the Triple-A stadium the A’s are calling home for three years while their new stadium gets built in Las Vegas.

Pepiot sailed through six innings, allowing only two hits and and one run while throwing 76 pitches. But the seventh didn’t go well, as he allowed a leadoff single, got one out, and then yielded another single, followed by the three-run homer to Tyler Soderstrom.

Griffin Jax got the Rays out of the inning. Edwin Uceta worked the eighth, with help from Yandy Diaz making an over-the-shoulder catch for the third out. Pete Fairbanks overcame a blooper dropping in to start the ninth to log his 20th save.

With Pepiot coming off a strong outing Aug. 5 against the Angels, the Rays were hoping for more of the same against a potent A’s lineup.

“‘Pep’ was really good, and we need another good outing,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said before the game. “I know the starting pitching the last couple days has been a little bit trying, falling behind early in ballgames.

“But let ‘Pep’ do his thing and know that this (A’s) team that we saw (earlier this season), their offense here has really taken off. They’ve got young players and veteran guys doing a lot of good things. They hit the ball out of the ballpark. They hit for contact. That’s a pretty tough combination.”

The Rays jumped on ex-teammate Jeffrey Springs for four early runs and knocked him out in the fourth. That was impressive since Springs — traded in December in the deal for Joe Boyle — had been pitching better.

After going 5-4 with 4.72 ERA over his first 12 starts, Springs was 5-2, 2.93 over his next 10. He took a perfect game into the sixth inning of his last outing on Wednesday.

“Good teammate, good person, but at the end of the day he helped us win a lot of games,” Cash recalled before the game.

“Hated to see him go through the injury that he went through (needing Tommy John elbow surgery in April 2023), but he worked hard to get back and get himself back pitching in the big leagues.

“You can see he’s probably in a better synch now than maybe right when he came back with us, because these surgeries take some time to get fully healthy.”

The 15 hits marked the first time in two weeks the Rays reached double digits and were their most since rapping 15 on July 23 against the White Sox.

The Rays started their scoring in the second, when Caminero reached on an infield single, recent acquisition and Monday call-up Everson Pereira doubled and Nick Fortes, another trade-deadline pickup, singled with two outs to get both in.

They made it 3-0 in the third when Yandy Diaz doubled, went to third on Brandon Lowe’s single and scored on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Josh Lowe.

Christopher Morel’s leadoff homer in the fourth made it 4-0.

The A’s got one on Shea Langeliers’ homer in the fifth, then the Rays expanded the lead to 6-1 in the seventh.

Brandon Lowe homered on the first pitch from Osvaldo Bido, and Caminero did the same on the second. It was the third time this season the Rays hit back-to-back homers and the second time they did so on first pitches.

The Rays added an insurance run in the eighth when they loaded the bases on two walks and a one-out infield single, then got a sacrifice fly from Brandon Lowe.

_______