The Oakland Athletics earned a split of the four-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays with a 3-2 win over the Rays Thursday afternoon at Tropicana Field.
Matt Chapman's two-out double in the ninth off Tampa Bay reliever Diego Castillo scored Jed Lowrie, who walked with one out.
The buzz prior to Thursday's game was the MLB debut of prized Rays' pitching prospect Shane McClanahan, who did not disappoint, to start, striking out four of the first five Oakland hitters he faced. But he ran into trouble in the third inning, allowing a run-scoring double to Ramon Laureano, and in the fourth, a solo homer to Matt Chapman that gave Oakland a 2-1 lead.
The Rays scored first in the top of the first, Brandon Lowe, who had been hit by a pitch, scoring on an Austin Meadows broken-bat bloop double. They tied it on a 431-foot solo blast from Lowe -- his fourth -- in the bottom of the fifth.
McClanahan's line: 4 innings pitched, allowing five hits, two runs and five strikeouts, with no walks.
Tampa Bay is back at it Friday, hosting the Houston Astros. Will the boo-birds be out? Find out on 95.3 WDAE starting at 6 p.m. with Jay Recher and the Inside Pitch, followed by the Rays Network pregame show with Neil Solondz at 6:30. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10.
Tampa native Lance McCullers (1-1, 4.58 ERA) goes for the Astros, while the Rays will go with Ryan Yarbrough (1-2, 4.28 ERA).