Shane Baz scattered three hits over 7 2/3 shutout innings and Jose Siri homered to lead the Tampa Bay Rays to a 1-0 victory over the host Oakland Athletics on Tuesday night.
It was the first win since July 3, 2022, for Baz (1-2), who missed the entire 2023 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in September 2022. He was making just his eighth start of 2024 on Tuesday.
Baz walked three and struck out four in a game that lasted just 1 hour, 54 minutes.
Edwin Uceta retired all four batters he faced in relief of Baz to pick up the first save of his career.
Joey Estes (5-6) was the hard-luck loser for Oakland, allowing just one run on three hits over 7 2/3 innings. Estes walked one and struck out five.
Tampa Bay, which managed just two hits in a 3-0 loss to the A’s in Monday night’s series opener, only had two hits — a single and a double by Yandy Diaz — through the first seven innings on Tuesday.
Following his double in the sixth, Diaz advanced to third on a groundout by Brandon Lowe, but Estes got out of the jam by striking out Christopher Morel.
Baz was equally as effective, allowing just two singles over the first seven innings. Miguel Andujar got the first, a leadoff base hit in the second, but he was quickly erased on a double-play ball by Shea Langeliers.
Langeliers got the other single thanks to an infield chopper that went off the top of third baseman Junior Caminero’s glove in the seventh.
Siri ended an 0-for-21 slump in the eighth when he slammed an 0-1 Estes fastball 415 feet to center. It was his 15th home run of the season and gave Tampa Bay its fourth win in the past five games.