The Oakland Athletics have a storied tradition. The Tampa Bay Rays have recently brought out the worst in them.
In the history of the Oakland A’s franchise, they have never allowed more than nine home runs in a two-game period. From August 8-10, 2012, and April 11-12, 1985 the A’s surrendered nine long-balls in a pair of games. The Athletics moved to Oakland in 1968.
On Friday night the Rays added June 7-9, 2017 to that list.
Rays Take Pride in Long Ball
The barrage of home runs came on a night where the Rays organization remembered the lives lost in the Orlando shootings at Pulse Night Club.
Five different Rays provided the fireworks – and they did so in a big way. Check out the distances of the home runs.
Steven Souza Jr: 453 feet
Mallex Smith: 392 feet
Logan Morrison: 376 feet
Tim Beckham: 435 feet
Corey Dickerson: 429 feet
*eyes widen*
D I N G E R S pic.twitter.com/lc2rUX804Y
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) June 10, 2017
The 2,085 feet worth of tape-measure blasts is the equivalent of 0.4 miles.
August 12, 2011 (against the New York Yankees) was the last time the Rays had five different players homer in a game. Friday was the first time in club history that the feat was accomplished at home. The Rays have hit five home runs in a game on one other occasion this season – May 16 against the Cleveland Indians.
Before allowing the Rays to club five round-trippers on Friday, the Athletics gave up four to the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night.
Turn Back the Clock
On Saturday, the Rays and A’s will play a double-header. Game 1 has the Rays in their throwback uniforms.
Looking back, Oakland starting pitcher Sonny Gray has allowed 59 home runs over 649.1 innings in his career. Seventeen different teams have taken him deep but the Tampa Bay Rays have more home runs (9) against Gray than any other team in Major League Baseball.
The only other team that has more home runs than games played against Gray is the Minnesota Twins. Gray has allowed six home runs in five career starts against the Twins.
The last three home runs that Gray has given up to the Rays came in 2016, off the bat of Beckham, Dickerson, and Evan Longoria.
