Taylor Walls smacked his first two homers of the season and drove in three runs and the Tampa Bay Rays tied a team record with six home runs while rolling to a 12-4 victory over the Athletics on Tuesday night in West Sacramento, Calif.
The victory stretched Tampa Bay’s winning streak to eight games.
Junior Caminero, Yandy Diaz, Victor Mesa Jr. and Carson Williams all added blasts as the Rays improved to 8-0 on their nine-game road trip. Tampa Bay has scored 22 runs in the first two contests of the three-game series. It was Tampa Bay’s sixth-ever six-homer game, the first since Sept. 4, 2021, against the Minnesota Twins in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The switch-hitting Walls registered his second career two-homer game — the other was in 2023 — and each has come with blasts from both sides of the plate. He is the first switch-hitter in franchise history to record the feat more than once.
Tampa Bay’s Nick Martinez (12-3) gave up four runs and eight hits while tossing his first career nine-inning complete game. The 36-year-old All-Star struck out five and walked none while reaching a personal best for victories.
Lawrence Butler hit a two-run homer in the fourth and Carlos Cortes hit a two-run double in the ninth for the Athletics, who lost for the 31st time in the past 38 games.
Jacob Wilson originally saw his record 112-game streak without an error for a shortstop end with a miscue in the eighth, but the play was later changed to a fielder’s choice, thus extending his streak to 113 games.
Athletics starter Mason Barnett (1-3) served up three homers for the second straight outing. He allowed six runs (five earned), five hits and three walks without registering a strikeout in four innings.
Diaz led off the game by reaching on a two-base error by Athletics center fielder Henry Bolte. Two batters later, Caminero drilled a homer to center.
The Rays had two reach on walks in the third with Caminero later scoring on Chandler Simpson’s flyout. After the run crossed, Liam Hicks was thrown out trying to reach second.
Richie Palacios singled with two outs in the fourth before Walls smacked a homer to right-center while batting left-handed. Diaz followed with an opposite-field blast to right to make it 6-0.
In the bottom of the inning, Wilson hit a one-out single and Butler came up with two outs and slugged a homer to center to get the A’s on the board.
Walls batted right-handed against Brady Basso in the sixth and ripped a one-out homer to left to give the Rays a 7-2 advantage.
In the seventh, Hicks walked with one out against Elvis Alvarado and Mesa slammed a two-out, two-run blast to center.
In the eighth inning, Wilson made an errant flip to second base after fielding a grounder to apparently end his stellar streak. The miscue put runners on first and second, and Williams came up with two outs as a pinch hitter and smashed a three-run blast to center.
–Field Level Media
