The Tampa Bay Rays will go for the sweep when they battle the Oakland Athletics on Thursday afternoon. Last night, SP Nathan Eovaldi no hit the Athletics for six innings in his first start of the season to pitch the Rays to a 6-0 victory. Rob Refsnyder connected on a three run blast in the second inning for Tampa Bay, who moved to two games above .500 overall.
Twenty-six year old righty Ryne Stanek (1-0 3.24 ERA) will make his second career major league start for the Rays. Stanek, who is a reliever, has struck out 11 batters and owns a 1.20 WHIP in eight plus innings.
The Oakland Athletics will look to salvage the final game of this series, after being outscored by a 11-3 margin over the first three games. On Wednesday, SP Sean Manaea allowed four runs over five frames and saw his record drop to 5-6 on the year. Oakland committed four errors and managed just one hit in defeat.
The Athletics will counter with twenty-five year old righty Daniel Mengden (5-4 2.85 ERA) on Thursday. Mengden has won three straight starts and has allowed just one run over his last 22 innings of work.
