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Eveland sharp as Athletics crush Rays

May 21, 2008 - 11:42 PM OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- Dana Eveland must like the northern California air.

Eveland pitched his first career complete game Wednesday to lead the Oakland Athletics to a 9-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Bobby Crosby went 3-for-5 with two RBI and Jack Cust homered twice for Oakland (25-23), which snapped a two-game mini-skid and avoided falling back to .500 for the first time since early April.

Eveland (4-3) yielded a run, three hits and a walk while striking out five to run his record to 3-0 at home. He threw 63 of his 95 pitches for strikes and faced four batters over the minimum.

"I haven't even thought about it yet, but it's awesome to have the complete game," Eveland said.

It was the first time Eveland was facing the Rays in his four-year career and the lefthander was nearly dominant, surrendering just two base hits over his first seven innings.

"Their guy (Eveland) was really good, very talented," Rays manager Joe Maddon. "We couldn't do anything against him."

The 24-year-old southpaw was six outs away from his first career shutout when Jonny Gomes sent his first pitch in the eighth over the wall in left to finally put the Rays in the scoring column.

"I was really hoping I could get the shutout, but you give up homers occasionally, Eveland said. "It's no big deal. Got the complete game, and the win feels great."

Crosby's two-run double in the third inning gave Oakland its initial lead.

The home team proceeded to score at least a run over its next four innings, including a three-run fifth in which Jack Hannahan hit a solo homer two batters before Cust went deep off Tampa Bay starter Andy Sonnanstine (6-2) for a two-run blast that gave the A's a 6-0 lead.

"I wouldn't mind playing tomorrow to keep the feeling going the way we hit," Hannahan said.

Kurt Suzuki had a run-scoring double in the sixth before Cust hit his second two-run shot in the seventh off Jason Hammel to make the score 9-0.

"My first two times up, I came up empty, but I got pitches to hit the last couple of at-bats and I didn't miss them," Cust said.

Sonnanstine gave up seven runs, nine hits and a walk while striking out six in six innings.

"I threw good pitches and they hit them, I threw bad pitches and they hit them, " Sonnanstine said. "It's tough to get blown out."