Osvaldo Bido allowed just two hits in five innings, Darell Hernaiz contributed to a two-run second with the first of his two doubles and the Oakland Athletics split their four-game home series against the Tampa Bay Rays with a 3-1 victory Thursday afternoon.
Lawrence Butler collected two hits, a run and an RBI for the A’s, who ran their record to three wins and two ties in their last five series.
Bido (5-3) won his third straight start despite allowing his first run in that stretch. That came in the fourth inning when Jose Caballero’s two-out double scored Christopher Morel, who had singled.
The second-year right-hander then retired the next four batters he faced before walking Brandon Lowe to lead off the sixth, prompting Bido’s removal of the game with a 3-1 lead.
Michel Otanez, Grant Holman, T.J. McFarland, Tyler Ferguson and Mason Miller took it the rest of the way, combining to shut out the Rays on just four hits over four innings. Miller notched his 20th save with a scoreless ninth, striking out two sandwiching Kameron Misner’s first major league hit, a single.
Bido finished with six strikeouts and three walks.
The A’s scored their first two runs off Rays starter Jeffrey Springs (1-2) in the second. Singles by Butler and Tyler Nevin set up a sacrifice fly by Zack Gelof before Hernaiz’s double to left.
Oakland completed its scoring in the third when Daz Cameron singled with two outs, stole second and raced home on a single up the middle by Butler.
Springs was pulled after 3 1/3 innings, charged with all three Oakland runs on seven hits. He walked two and struck out three.
Miguel Andujar joined Hernaiz and Butler in the two-hit column for the A’s, who out-hit the visitors 9-6 in the homerless affair.
Morel had a pair of singles for Tampa Bay, which had won the previous two games to take a 2-1 lead in the series.
–Field Level Media