Hicks' 401-Foot Blast Blows It Open, Rays Cruise 8-4
Liam Hicks went 3-for-5 with a 401-foot, three-run homer that turned a tight game into a rout, and Tampa Bay walked out of Wednesday's contest with an 8-4 win over the Athletics. Jack Perkins surrendered 12 hits and 6 earned runs in just 5.0 innings — the kind of outing that makes a final score feel inevitable in hindsight.
Tampa Bay wasted no time getting after Perkins. In the second inning, Palacios singled to left to score DeLuca, and then Perkins compounded his own trouble — a fielding error on a Díaz grounder allowed Mullins to score, pushing the lead to 2-0. The Rays kept the pressure on in the third: Mullins doubled to left to score Caminero, stretching it to 3-0. The Athletics briefly answered — Cortes doubled to right, scoring Gelof and Walton to make it 3-2 — and that two-run double was the closest thing to a lifeline Oakland would get. The win probability swung from 16% to 30% for the home side on that play, but it looks like that was the ceiling of their momentum, not the start of something.
The fourth inning is where the game was decided. Caminero singled to left to score Díaz, making it 4-2. Then Hicks stepped up and hit a 401-foot home run to right center, scoring Aranda and Caminero with it — a three-run shot that pushed the lead to 7-2 and effectively ended the competitive portion of the evening. Perkins had already allowed 12 hits by the time he was done at five innings, and the story of the night was how thoroughly Tampa Bay's lineup picked him apart from the jump. Hicks finished 3-for-5 with 3 RBI; Caminero, Díaz, and Mullins each went 2-for-5 with an RBI of their own. This was a collective offensive performance, not a one-man show — though Hicks' homer was the exclamation point.
On the mound, Drew Rasmussen gave Tampa Bay a serviceable 5.0 innings, allowing 4 hits and 2 earned runs with 3 strikeouts. Steven Matz and Casey Legumina each tossed a clean inning in relief — Matz with a strikeout and no hits allowed, Legumina with one hit and a strikeout. The Athletics did show some late fight: Gelof homered to left center (388 feet) in the eighth, and Butler followed with a 426-foot shot to right center, trimming the deficit to 8-4. But by then the math was irrelevant. Tampa Bay's bullpen held the line, and the final score reflects what this game was from the fourth inning on — a comfortable Rays win.