Rich Hill bounced back Monday night. The Rays’ bats did not. 

Snapping a streak of four straight four-run outings to begin the season, Hill put together his first quality start with Tampa Bay in the series opener against Oakland. The veteran left-hander struck out 10 in six innings, allowing only two hits and two walks. But with the Rays unable to mount any sort of offensive attack, Hill’s few mistakes were enough to cost him in a 2-1 loss to the A’s at Tropicana Field. 

A day after they were shut out for the first time in 69 games, the Rays could only scratch across one run against the A’s, who have won 14 of their last 15 games. Tampa Bay gave up three total runs in its last two games and lost both -- the first time the club has allowed two runs or fewer in consecutive games and dropped both since May 6-8, 2018. 

“It's frustrating when it happens anytime, certainly when it happens back-to-back,” manager Kevin Cash said. “Our pitching, again, outstanding -- gave us every opportunity to win. ... The A's, they always seem to have really tough pitching. Just kept us quiet again.”

The Rays scored their lone run Monday in the first inning, when Randy Arozarena -- bumped up to the leadoff spot as part of the Rays’ 23rd different lineup in 23 games -- hit a ground-ball single to left, took second base on a Yandy Díaz comebacker, stole third and scored on Austin Meadows’ sacrifice fly. They made A’s starter Sean Manaea work, as he threw 100 pitches in five innings, but they only advanced one runner past second base after Arozarena scored in the first.  

Four games into this homestand, the Rays have scored only nine runs on 22 hits and 11 walks while striking out 43 times. They’ve hit just .171 during that time while going 2-for-24 with runners in scoring position -- both of those hits came Friday. Their last extra-base hit was on Saturday. 

Before this homestand began, the Rays averaged 7.3 runs per game during a 5-1 road trip through New York and Kansas City. What’s it going to take for them to get back to that level? 

“We go in with the mentality that we're gonna win every ballgame, whether we're at home or whether we're on the road trip,” Arozarena said through interpreter Manny Navarro. “You can only control what you can control. The other team, they beat us. They played well today. And all you can do is just come back tomorrow and hopefully turn the page and come back and compete again.” 

The Rays’ six-hit performance resulted in a loss for Hill, who made his best start of the season and recorded his first 10-strikeout performance since May 17, 2019. In the fourth inning, Hill walked Matt Chapman with two outs and then gave up a go-ahead homer to catcher Sean Murphy. After that, he retired seven of the last eight hitters he faced. 

“He’s a tough at-bat. He’s been around a while,” Murphy said. “He knows what he’s doing and how to pitch guys. He doesn’t make too many mistakes.” 

On Sunday, Hill said he was setting out to pitch deeper into the game, avoid big innings, use his cutter more and execute better two-strike pitches. He did all of that on Monday night. 

“[Catcher Mike Zunino] did a great job behind the dish tonight. We worked really well tonight together and kept the pace of the game moving, got the guys back in the dugout quick,” Hill said. “We're in a good spot. Tough game, tough loss. But come back tomorrow and get back on the win train.” 

Oakland also made a few key defensive plays to neutralize some of Tampa Bay’s opportunities with men on base. With runners on first and second and two outs in the third, right fielder Stephen Piscotty made a diving grab to take a potential run-scoring hit away from Manuel Margot. Left fielder Tony Kemp ran a long way to snag Willy Adames’ fly ball to left-center for the final out of the fourth. 

A’s second baseman Jed Lowrie made another solid play to end the Rays’ best chance to come back, which came in the eighth inning against lefty Jake Diekman. Arozarena hit a hard single to left, his third hit of the night, and Díaz worked his second walk to push Arozarena to second. Both runners advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch, then Meadows just missed a center-cut fastball and popped out to shortstop Elvis Andrus before Margot bounced out to Lowrie.  

The Rays had one last chance in the ninth, when Yoshi Tsutsugo singled and Adames walked, but Francisco Mejía flied out to left field to strand both runners. 

“[It’s] still very early. It doesn’t feel good right now, for sure, when we just can’t get anything rolling,” Cash said. “But we’ll do a good job as coaches and staff of supporting one another, and these guys are good with each other. It’s not one guy. It’s a bunch of ‘em. So they can hopefully work through this together a little bit.”