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Canha lifts A's past Rays

May 24, 2015 - 10:14 PM St. Petersburg, FL (SportsNetwork.com) - Mark Canha hit a three-run home run to lead the Oakland Athletics to a 7-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays in the finale of a four-game set.

Stephen Vogt drove in a pair of runs while Billy Burns hit a solo home run and scored three for the Athletics, who earned a split of the set after winning the final two.

Sonny Gray (5-2) pitched five innings and gave up four hits while striking out four, but had to depart the game due to a bruised right ankle.

"He's fine, he had X-rays and he's fine," said Oakland manager Bob Melvin about Gray. "He's limping around a little bit right now. He was all right for a little bit but after the fifth it started bothering him a little bit so we decided to pull him."

Logan Forsythe drove in both runs for the Rays, who had won four of five prior to losing their last two. Erasmo Ramirez (2-2) gave up five runs on five hits with five walks and four strikeouts over six innings.

"We knew we had our work cut out for us," said Tampa manager Kevin Cash. "We had some opportunities to get some runs but we weren't able to capitalize on getting them across early in the game."

The A's wasted no time taking the lead as Burns led off the frame with his first home run in the majors, a shot over the wall in right field.

"I was kind of shocked honestly," said Burns about his homer. "I never really do that in BP but it leapt off the bat. Got it right off the barrel, I guess."

Tampa nearly got a run in the first as James Loney hit a ball to third that was deflected into left field. Steven Souza tried to hustle home all the way from first, but was nailed at the plate to end the inning.

There was a nasty collision at the plate on the play as Souza tried to run over Vogt instead of sliding, but Vogt was able to hold on to the ball and Souza left the game an inning later with what was termed a left wrist injury.

Oakland worked another run across in the third as Burns led off with a single and moved to third on Josh Reddick's single before crossing the plate thanks to a sacrifice fly from Vogt for a 2-0 lead.

In the sixth, Oakland extended its lead as Vogt led off with a walk, Billy Butler was hit by a pitch and Canha blasted a pitch over the wall in left for a 5-0 advantage.

Josh Reddick hit a two-out solo shot in the seventh for a 6-0 lead.

Forsythe's two-run single in the eighth got the Rays on the board, but Vogt got a run back in the ninth on a sacrifice fly for a 7-2 lead.

Arnold Leon pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to close out the game.

Game Notes

Oakland hosts Detroit for three games starting on Monday ... Tampa hosts Seattle for three games beginning Monday ... Gray improved to 2-1 in four career starts against the Rays.