ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Brandon McCarthy pitched five-hit ball for eight innings, David DeJesus homered twice and the Oakland Athletics earned a rare road victory by beating the Tampa Bay Rays 8-0 on Saturday night.
McCarthy (5-5) helped Oakland win for just the eighth time in its last 38 games away from home. He struck out five before Fautino De Los Santos finished up with a hitless ninth.
Coco Crisp stole a career-best four bases, giving the Oakland speedster 37 this season. DeJesus hit a pair of solo homers, while Jemile Weeks and Adam Rosales both had two RBIs.
Tampa Bay’s B.J. Upton grounded out in the second inning, ending a stretch of reaching base in seven consecutive plate appearances. Upton is one of seven players who share the team record of eight.
McCarthy retired 13 straight after Evan Longoria’s first-inning single before allowing consecutive singles to Robinson Chirinos and Sean Rodriguez to start the sixth. The right-hander was able to work out of the jam.
DeJesus homered and Rosales had an RBI grounder off Alex Cobb (3-2) as Oakland went up 2-0 in the second. DeJesus, who hadn’t hit a home run in his previous 42 games, also went deep in the ninth.
Crisp had a bunt single in the third, stole second and scored to make it 3-0 on Josh Willingham’s sacrifice fly.
Weeks extended the advantage to 4-0 on an RBI single during the fourth. Weeks drove in a run with a double and Rosales had a sacrifice fly in the eighth
Oakland took a 5-0 lead in the fifth when Crisp singled, stole both second and third and scored on Cliff Pennington’s sacrifice fly.
Cobb gave up five runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings. The rookie has lost two starts in a row.
Oakland threatened in the first, but a baserunning mistake by Crisp ended the inning. After reaching on an error and stealing second, Crisp was tagged out in a rundown near third base on Willingham’s two-out single.
Weeks was also thrown out to end the fourth after going too far away from first base on his hit.