Odorizzi allowed only one hit to the A's./JEFFREY S. KING
Tuesday, 2 a.m.
The guy on the mound looked familiar. You might swear that you had seen him before. Same scowl, same swagger, same stuff.
Hey. Didn't you used to be Jake Odorizzi?
Odorizzi, coming off one of his worst outings, came back with one of his best against the Oakland A's Monday night. Odorizzi threw seven innings of one-hit baseball, leading the Rays to a 3-2 victory.
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Longoria extended his hitting streak to 10 games./CARMEN MANDATO
The game pulled Tampa Bay within two games of the AL East-leading Boston Red Sox. It was the team's 50th victory of the year.
“It was good to see Odo perform that way,” said manager Kevin Cash in his post-game press conference. “There was a lot of talk about him and not performing the way he did in the past. Great work. One hit. My gosh. I thought in the first inning, it could have gone sideways and he settled down. His stuff looked good. Good curveball, good sliders.”
Odorizzi went to the stretch after a labored first inning, and gave up only a fourth-inning home run to Khris Davis.
Souza hit his 19th home run of the season./CARMEN MANDATO
The Rays, meanwhile, got homers from Steven Souza Jr. and Evan Longoria. Longoria, on a 10-game hitting streak, also drove in a run with a fielder's choice.
Tampa Bay's Alex Colome got his 27th save despite giving up a run in the ninth.
Shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria had two hits for the Rays.
Odorizzi was coming off a start where he gave up eight hits and seven runs. Against Oakland, he went more than six innings for the first time in eight starts. Still, it was the 14th straight start in which Odorizzi has given up a home run.
The Rays play Oakland again today when Blake Snell (0-5) goes for his first win. Chris Smith starts for the A's.
Hechavarria had two hits for Tampa Bay./CARMEN MANDATO
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