OAKLAND, Calif. _ The Oakland A's offense shared something in common with the attendance number for Monday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays. They were both dreadful.
In front of an announced crowd of 9,736 fans at the Coliseum, lowest attendance since May 2, 2011 (9,193), the A's bats were stymied by Rays starter Jake Odorizzi and limited to just two hits in a 3-2 loss that snapped Oakland's three-game winning streak.
After a three-game home stand over the weekend that saw large crowds that reached up to 33,000 to watch the A's sweep the Cleveland Indians and score 17 runs, Monday's scaled-down crowd did not have much to cheer about. Khris Davis' solo home run in the fourth inning was the only thing that provided any type of excitement for most of the night in a stadium that looked more like a ghost town.
Odorizzi departed after seven innings of work, but the combination of Tommy Hunter and Alex Colome shut the door in the final two innings by recording the remaining six outs. The A's mounted a threat in the ninth after Yonder Alonso led off with a double to bring Davis to the plate as the potential game-tying run, but Colome got both Davis and Jed Lowrie to ground out. Alonso eventually scored on a wild pitch to bring Oakland within a run, but Ryon Healy grounded out to short to end the game.
Rookie Daniel Gossett pitched seven innings in what was the longest outing of his career and kept the A's in the ballgame with just three runs allowed, but the long ball ultimately did him in. Gossett gave up solo home runs to Steven Souza in the second and Evan Longoria in the fifth, now having allowed at least a home run in six of his seven starts this season. Tampa Bay's third run, which proved to ultimately make the difference, came in the third after Longoria reached on a grounder that was bobbled by Marcus Semien and allowed Mallex Smith to score.
Blake Treinen made his A's debut in the eighth inning. The former Nationals closer pitched a clean inning, surrendering only a walk to keep the A's deficit at 3-1.
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