Snell has seven victories for the Rays./JEFFREY S. KING
Wednesday, 4 a.m.
For just the second time this season, the Tampa Bay Rays are winners.
The Rays, who lost eight of their first nine games the season, finished the night on the right side of .500 at 27-26. They got there with a 4-3 victory over the Oakland A's.
The Rays have won four straight games and five of their last six. They are 11-4 in their last 15 games and 23-13 in their last 36 (after starting 4-13).
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Cron hit a home run.../CARMEN MANDATO
It was a notable night for the Rays.
-- Starting pitcher Blake Snell was on again, throwing 5 2/3 innings and allowing just two hits and one unearned run. He struck out seven.
-- In the third inning, C.J. Cron, Joey Wendle and Wilson Ramos hit back-to-back-to-back home runs. Later in the game, Daniel Robertson hit another homer.
-- Matt Duffy had three hits.
...Joey Wendle added another..../CARMEN MANDATO
-- Reliever Jaime Schultz made his major league debut in the seventh inning, striking out the side on 14 pitches. His strikeouts concluded with strikes of 96, 98 and 97 miles per hour.
-- The Rays committed three errors and ran into two outs.
-- Sergio Romo got his first save, even though he gave up two runs on groundouts on the way.
...And Ramos added a third./CARMEN MANDATO
"It was really impressive (the three consecutive homers), especially coming with two outs," Rays Kevin Cash said. "The guys had a lot of fun with it. We got all over Duffy that he smoked the ball (after the three homers), but that wasn't good enough."
Cash didn't seem flustered by Romo's wobbly ninth inning.
"We have confidence in Sergio as much as anyone in that bullpen when we have a fresher bullpen," Cash said.
The Rays play the A's again tonight at 10:10 p.m. Nathan Eovaldi makes his first start of the season for Tampa Bay against Sean Manaea.
Robertson's late home run was the difference./JEFFREY S. KING
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