ST. PETERSBURG (620 WDAE) -- Matt Andriese left after just one inning after re-injuring his groin, and the bullpen allowed three late runs as the Tampa Bay Rays couldn't finish off a sweep of Saturday's doubleheader, dropping the nightcap 7-2 to the Oakland Athletics.
Andriese allowed a run in the top of the first, giving up three consecutive hits culminating with a RBI single by Yonder Alonso.
Tampa Bay came back in the bottom of the first, with Peter Bourjos doubling off Sean Manaea with one away and scoring on a base hit by Evan Longoria.
But as Andriese was warming up to start the second inning, head trainer Ron Porterfield and manager Kevin Cash were summoned, and the right-hander would depart with the same right groin strain that sent him to the disabled list to begin with. Right-hander Chih-Wei Hu took over, and ended up giving up a solo homer to Josh Phegley to break the tie and give Oakland the lead for good.
Hu ended up taking the loss despite allowing just the single run in four innings of emergency work.
Jose Alvarado allowed the A's to take a 3-1 lead in the sixth on a safety squeeze bunt by Jaycob Brugman, but Tampa Bay got back to within a run when Evan Longoria hit his ninth home run and 250th of his career in the bottom of the sixth to make it a 3-2 game.
But Ryne Stanek gave up a pair of home runs in the seventh, a solo shot by Ryon Healy and a two-run blast by Chad Pinder to allow Oakland to pull away, and Danny Farquhar gave up a sacrifice fly to Brugman to get the score at 7-2.
The loss drops Tampa Bay back to a single game over .500 at 32-31.
Tampa Bay will look to start a new winning streak and earn another home series win with a victory in Sunday's finale. Chris Archer (4-4, 3.65 ERA) will get the start, taking on former Rays farmhand Jesse hahn (2-4, 3.40 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 1:10, with coverage on WDAE beginning at 11:00 Sunday morning with The Inside Pitch presented by Sykes Lakeland.