Rays get what they need: strong Drew Rasmussen start, early lead, win

Marc Topkin, Tampa Bay Times on Aug 14, 2025

Published in Baseball

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WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As you may have noticed, very little has gone the way the Rays have planned of late.

Wednesday night was a welcome exception.

With All-Star starter Drew Rasmussen taking a 15 ⅓-inning scoreless streak and the confidence that comes with it to the mound, they were banking on a strong start.

And after a quiet Tuesday at the plate, manager Kevin Cash made a reasonable request during his pregame media session: “I’d like to see us get him some early runs.”

Rasmussen did his part, working six strong innings.

The hitters did theirs, scoring four runs in the first and adding two more in the second on a mammoth homer by Brandon Lowe. (They tacked on two more in the ninth on Junior Caminero’s 34th homer of the season.)

And just like that, the Rays won a game, 8-2 over the Athletics.

For all that has been going badly, the Rays won a series for the second time in the first three stops of their marathon 14-day, 12-game road trip, which concludes with a weekend matchup against the Giants.

In doing so, they improved to 59-63 and moved to 5 ½ games back of the third American League wild-card spot, currently held by the Yankees.

Rasmussen gave the Rays pretty much exactly what they needed by working the six strong innings, allowing only two runs on three hits and no walks.

He lost both his scoreless streak and an impressive stretch of three straight starts without allowing an extra-base hit when Lawrence Butler led off the third with a home run that was of little consequence.

The only other run Rasmussen allowed came in the fifth. Colby Thomas led off with a single, went to second on an error at third by Caminero and scored on a one-out single by Gio Urshela. But Rasmussen kept the lead at 6-2 by retiring the next two batters.

The Rays then turned things over to their bullpen, and that worked, too. Bryan Baker, who came over in early July from the Orioles, handled the seventh. Griffin Jax, the trade-deadline-heading acquisition from the Twins, worked the eighth. And Mason Englert got the final three outs.

The Rays got off to a good start, scoring four runs with two outs in the first off J.T. Ginn.

Chandler Simpson, as is often the case, got them going. He led off with a single, went to second on an errant pickoff throw and advanced to third on a Brandon Lowe flyout. But after Yandy Diaz struck out, the Rays got going.

Josh Lowe doubled — a ball down the line that was grabbed by the A’s ball boy — to score Simpson. Caminero followed with a double that scored Lowe for his 82nd RBI (he later added two more).

Jake Mangum kept the rally going against his former Mississippi State teammate with a single that scored Caminero.

After catcher Hunter Feduccia walked, the Rays pulled off a double steal, and Mangum scored on an errant throw by catcher Shea Langeliers.

The Rays quickly extended the lead to 6-0 in the second.

Simpson used his blazing speed to beat out a slow infield roller for a single.

Then Brandon Lowe flexed his muscle with a 458-foot homer to left-center. It was his fifth homer in his last eight games, his 24th of this season and the 150th of his career. The only longer homer by Lowe was a foot more five years earlier to the day.

Caminero, who appeared to tweak his right leg in an earlier at-bat, looked fine lofting a ball over the leftfield fence with two outs in the ninth and jogging around the bases.