ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Rays don’t have anything to do backflips over.
A couple of costly mistakes by starter Shane McClanahan and a mostly quiet offense led to a 4-2 loss to the A’s on Wednesday, the second time in the past three games that the Rays came up short after their 3-0 start to the season.
Backflips were part of the pregame conversation, as the Rays had called up Dusten Knight to add a fresh arm to their bullpen. Knight, a 31-year-old who finally made it to the majors last year with Baltimore, is most known for celebrating saves in the minors by stepping off the mound and doing a backflip, a feat carried over from his childhood wrestling days.
Manager Kevin Cash said if Knight got his first major league save, he also would do a backflip, but it was all moot.
The series finale is Thursday, with first pitch at 1:10.
McClanahan gave the Rays an overall strong 4 2/3-innings start, but the handful of mistakes he made in the third inning doomed him.
The hard-throwing lefty got the first two A’s out, then fell behind Jed Lowrie 2-0 and walked him on five pitches. McClanahan then did the same to Stephen Piscotty on six pitches.
He fell behind again to the next batter, Sean Murphy, and paid a worse price. Murphy launched a 2-1 pitch 411 feet and over the fence to the right of center field.
McClanahan had good stuff, evidenced by the eight strikeouts he logged and only the two hits he allowed. Though he threw 55 of his 85 pitches for strikes, he fell behind 10 of the 19 batters he faced, and the two walks were big problems.
Knight allowed another run on a two-out single in the seventh.
The Rays didn’t do much to help — left nine on base — as they were shut down by top A’s starter Frankie Montas and three relievers.
They got one run in the fourth, when Ji-Man Choi homered for the second straight night, and then one in the seventh when they had a chance for more.
A leadoff single by Yandy Diaz and a Josh Lowe grounder to second that the A’s misplayed put two on. But Montas came back to strike out Manuel Margot, then lefty reliever Kirby Snead struck out Harold Ramirez (who pinch-hit for Kevin Kiermaier). Francisco Mejia came through with a clutch hit, as he often does, a bloop single scoring Diaz. But Brandon Lowe grounded out.
