Game Preview: Athletics At Rays

(AP) - Despite injuries to some key members of their pitching staff, the Tampa Bay Rays' work on the mound remains a big reason for their early success.

Chris Archer seeks a third straight strong start as the Rays look to add to the misery of the visiting Oakland Athletics on Friday night.

Alex Colome pitched five solid innings and four relievers allowed two hits and struck out six as Tampa Bay (23-19) beat Oakland 3-0 on Thursday to take a one-half game lead in the AL East.

"I think you embrace playing good baseball," said Rays manager Kevin Cash, whose team has won six of nine.

"You want to be in this position at the end of the year. It's always nice to be here where we're at, so we wouldn't change anything, but I don't think we'll get too caught up where we're at this given point."

Even with Drew Smyly (shoulder), Alex Cobb (elbow) and Matt Moore (elbow) all injured, the Rays have allowed two or fewer runs 21 times and five total during their four-game home winning streak. Opponents are batting a major league-low .218 against them and their 3.33 ERA is the second-lowest in the AL.

Archer (4-4, 2.47 ERA) posted an 8.68 ERA and walked eight to lose his first two starts of May, but he's 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA with two walks in the last two. The right-hander allowed one run over six innings of an 11-3 win at Minnesota on Sunday.

"Archer is nasty," Twins infielder Brian Dozier said. "Faced him numerous times and that was the best I've ever seen him."

This will be Archer's first appearance against the A's (14-29), who have dropped three straight and averaged 3.0 runs while losing 13 of 15.

"We just need to relax," said catcher Stephen Vogt, who is 1 for 14 in the last five games. "The thing you've got to realize is pitchers get nervous, too, when there's runners in scoring position, but that's not something you realize when you're struggling as a team in that situation."

Though Oakland is 1-3 on its seven-game trip and has totaled one run over the last two, shortstop Brett Lawrie is 8 for 16 on the trek. He's batting .385 against Archer.

Oakland counters with ex-Ray Scott Kazmir (2-2, 3.08), who faces his former club for the first time since going 1-2 with a 4.11 ERA in 2010 - his only other appearances against them.

The left-hander went 2-0 with an 0.99 ERA in four April starts but is 0-2 with a 5.64 ERA in four this month. He was charged with five runs, seven hits and three walks over 4 1-3 innings of Sunday's 7-3 defeat to the Chicago White Sox.

"I have to put my team in a better position," said Kazmir, whose first-inning error led to Chicago's first run.

With a homer and two RBIs in the opener, Tampa Bay's David DeJesus is batting .417 with three home runs and 10 RBIs in his last 15 games. He's hitting .381 with two doubles against Kazmir.

Oakland reliever Edward Mujica is headed to the disabled list after he fractured his thumb trying to field a grounder Thursday.

Updated May 22, 2015