Baseball: Oakland 4 Tampa Bay 2

Brandon McCarthy tossed seven effective innings Saturday and the Oakland Athletics stayed in the thick of the wild card race with a 4-2 win over Tampa Bay. McCarthy (7-5) controlled the Rays on two runs, yielding four hits while walking two and striking out seven. Sean Doolittle and hurled a perfect eighth inning and Grant Balfour picked up his 14th save for the A's, who came into the contest tied with the Baltimore Orioles for the second American League wild card spot. Chris Carter bashed a two-run homer in the first inning and Seth Smith added solo shot in the third for Oakland, which took the rubber match of a three-game series. Rays starter Jeremy Hellickson (8-9) was touched for four runs on six hits over five full innings, striking out five. Desmond Jennings knocked a solo homer for the AL wild card leaders.