Major League Baseball
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Oakland 5, Tampa Bay 1
When: 4:05 PM ET, Sunday, September 1, 2013
Where: O.co Coliseum, Oakland, California
Temperature: 68°
Umpires: Home - Tony Randazzo, 1B - Larry Vanover, 2B - Brian Gorman, 3B - Manny Gonzalez
Attendance: 18639

Athletics 5, Rays 1: Coco Crisp homered for the sixth time in 11 games and A.J. Griffin pitched seven strong innings as Oakland completed a three-game sweep of visiting Tampa Bay.

Stephen Vogt also went deep while Daric Barton added two hits and an RBI single for the Athletics, who moved within one game of first-place Texas in the American League West. Griffin (12-9) allowed one run on five hits and struck out seven as Oakland won for the sixth time in seven contests.

James Loney hit the first homer in seven games for Tampa Bay, which has lost seven of its last eight games. The Rays have scored only 17 runs in that span and dropped 5 1/2 games behind Boston in the AL East while leading Baltimore by three for the second wild card spot.

Crisp belted a 1-1 pitch into the right field seats to lead off the first inning and Loney tied the game with a one-out solo blast in the second. Jed Lowrie bunted for a single and went all the way to third on Evan Longoria’s throwing error before scoring on a Brandon Moss single off reliever Alex Torres (4-1) in the third.

Wil Myers doubled with two outs in the seventh for the Rays, but was cut down at the plate on a perfect relay after Desmond Jennings’ single to left field. Vogt, a former Tampa Bay utilityman, hammered his third homer to right field off Jake McGee in the seventh to extend the Athletics’ lead to 3-1.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Tampa Bay RHP Jamey Wright made his first start since Aug. 25, 2007, and allowed one run on three hits over 1 2/3 innings. Wright is the 19th Rays pitcher to start a game since 2008, the fewest in the majors (San Francisco is next at 23). … Crisp’s 16th homer equaled his career high in 2005 while he was with Cleveland. … The Athletics, who improved to 15-7 on Sundays, begin a three-game series at home against Texas and Tampa Bay starts a four-game set at the Los Angeles Angels on Monday.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Tampa Bay   Oakland
Jamey Wright Player A.J. Griffin
No Decision W/L Win
1.2 IP 7.0
1 Strikeouts 7
3 Hits 5
5.40 ERA 1.29
Hitting
Tampa Bay   Oakland
James Loney Player Daric Barton
2 Hits 2
1 RBI 1
1 HR 0
5 TB 2
.500 Avg .500
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Tampa Bay 7 1 13 .219 8 10 1 1 0 2
Oakland 9 2 16 .290 16 4 5 4 0 0