A's beat Rays 2-1: Bittersweet 7th-straight victory on Reverse Boycott evening

The Oakland Athletics (19-50) entered the second game of their series against the MLB-best Tampa Bay Rays (48-22) on a very special evening and pulled off the upset beating the visitors 2-1 in a game for the ages.

Whether that's for the good or for the bad of the A's franchise, though, depends on how you look at it and where you hail from.

The Athletics faithful put together a day-long celebration that came to be known as the "Reverse Boycott" all over the world and that brought a season-best 27,759 bodies to the stands of the Oakland Coliseum. Just for context, the A's have drawn a league-worst attendance average of 9,137 people per game.

Hogan Harris (2-0) got the "fake" start for the A's while Shintaro Fujinami was the official starter taking the mound for the Athletics and throwing a clean first inning before making way to Harris. Jalen Beeks was the opener of the Rays, also leaving a couple of outs into the second to be replaced by Yonny Chirinos (3-1).

At the time of the first pitch, the special session over Nevada had already yielded the first voting results attached to the bill related to the construction of a new stadium in the Las Vegas Strip for the Athletics to use if they relocate to Sin City.

The results of the voting process: 12 voted YES, 7 voted NO. Vegas won, Oakland lost.

Hogan took full control of the game midway through the top of the fifth inning. Then and there, with one man out and one runner in third, Harris conceded a single to Manuel Margot to put the Rays 1-0 on top by scoring Jose Siri. Hogan wrapped the inning with a popout and a groundout, minimizing the damage.

The A's left it for late, not getting into the scoreboard until the seventh frame when Jace Peterson walked, Esteury Ruiz reached base on catcher interference only for him to get robbed of a clean steal of second base later, and finally, Brent Rooker hit an RBI double to tie the game at 1-1 bringing Pete home.

A bouncing heater by Carlos Perez scored Ramon Laureano in the eighth inning to give the A's their first lead of the game and one they would never surrender.

Trevor May entered the matchup at the top of the ninth, dealt with Harold Ramirez (lineout), Randy Arozarena (walked though caught stealing second), and Jose Siri (strikeout) to secure the seventh win in a row for an Oakland team that doesn't know how to lose games anymore.

The Athletics are one win from reaching 20 this season, and they have overtaken the Kansas City Royals (18-49) in the winning percentage column with a .275 PCT to the Royals' .269. The A's are also in possession of the longest winning streak (seven games) followed by the Baltimore Orioles' five wins in a row.