Sean Manaea carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning, but a Mike Brosseau leadoff double broke up the bid and a Mike Zunino game-tying RBI single took the win off his plate in the A’s 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday at the Coliseum.
Seth Brown’s walk-off home run down to the last out in the ninth inning sealed the deal. Brown was responsible for both of the A’s runs.
There was every reason to believe Manaea might be in for the A’s 14th no-hitter in franchise history. The A’s last no-hitter, Mike Fiers’ against the Cincinnati Reds in 2019, also occurred on May 7. Manaea was six outs away from becoming the first pitcher in Athletics history to throw two complete no-hitters; he no-hit the Boston Red Sox in 2018. (Vida Blue threw a complete no-hitter in 1970 and started in a combined no-hitter in 1975 with the A’s.)
Plus, Manaea was cruising. He was perfect through six innings, but walked Randy Arozarena to lead off the seventh. But the 29-year-old left-hander was efficient and nasty, sending the first 18 batters he faced back to the dugout using just 58 pitches, painting his sinker with a sweeping breaking ball, generating plenty of swings-and-misses with his change-up.
Hard contact lighting up the scoreboard, Manaea got his 10th strikeout of the night against Kevin Kiermaier — matching a career-high — before manager Bob Melvin took him out of the game with one out in the eighth inning. He’d thrown just 81 pitches. Perhaps he’d have finished the inning if the game wasn’t on the line.
The A’s hitters couldn’t generate any run support for Manaea until the seventh inning, when pinch hitting Seth Brown’s single scored Jed Lowrie from second off Rays reliever Andrew Kittredge. Lowrie was responsible for three of the A’s six hits. Rays starter Rich Hill gave up just two hits in six innings — both from Lowrie.
