The Tampa Bay Rays arrived at Camden Yards with the chance to overtake the Orioles atop the American League East this weekend.
They’re one step closer.
In their biggest game of the season to date, the Orioles were outplayed by their division foe in every facet, falling to the Rays, 4-3, to make the race for the AL East crown even tighter.
Baltimore (91-55) now holds a slim one-game lead over Tampa Bay (91-57) for the circuit’s best record. That advantage was at four Saturday, but the Orioles have dropped three straight games for the first time since before the All-Star break and just the third time this season.
Rays right-hander Aaron Civale and his bullpen outpitched Kyle Bradish and his, as the Orioles’ ace allowed four runs for just the second time in his past 19 starts dating to May 28. Tampa Bay’s defense played clean baseball, while Baltimore’s made two missteps to aid a three-run fourth inning.
The Rays’ bats came up clutch in several instances with two RBI hits with runners in scoring position and the game-winning solo home run from Luke Raley in the seventh. Meanwhile, the Orioles’ offense continued its recent struggles with just four hits, 15 strikeouts and three at-bats with runners in scoring position. Two of the hits were solo home runs from Ryan O’Hearn and Gunnar Henderson. The other two were bunt singles.
“They hit one more solo homer than we did,” manager Brandon Hyde said.
The biggest missed opportunity came in the fifth when Adley Rutschman grounded into an inning-ending double play with runners on the corners. The Orioles failed to reach base after that inning, as their final 12 hitters were retired in order by Tampa Bay’s dominant bullpen. Colin Poche (12-3), former Oriole Shawn Armstrong and Robert Stephenson bridged the game from Civale to Rays closer Pete Fairbanks, who struck out the side in the ninth to extend Tampa Bay’s streak of scoreless innings by relief pitchers to 34.
“We’ve got to do a little better job of — the opportunities we had to score, we only got one across,” Hyde said. “That’s been something we’ve been good at this year is to push more runs across in those kind of situations. We just didn’t do it tonight.”
The Orioles’ magic number to win the AL East remains at 15, but with a 6-4 record over the Rays, they need just one more win over them to claim the season series, a potentially crucial tiebreaker. The club’s magic number to make the postseason also stays at four. The earliest the Orioles can clinch a playoff berth is Saturday.
Both starting pitchers opened the game in front of an announced attendance of 24,835 with three-up, three-down first innings. Bradish and Aaron Civale, whom the Rays acquired at the trade deadline, entered Thursday with two of the best ERAs among AL starters at 3.03 and 2.96, respectively.
After Civale struck out the first three batters he faced, O’Hearn turned on an inside cutter for a 409-foot home run to right field that gave Baltimore an early lead. The long ball was O’Hearn’s 13th with the Orioles, with nine of them tying or giving the Orioles the lead. The castoff-turned-cleanup hitter has emerged this year the club’s leader in OPS at .838 after spending the past few seasons as a bench bat for the lowly Kansas City Royals.
O’Hearn had the chance to put his team ahead thanks to a web gem in the top half of the second by Cedric Mullins, who ranged 91 feet to right-center field and laid out to rob Rays shortstop Taylor Walls of an RBI extra-base hit.
Bradish’s defense, however, didn’t help him the following inning. To begin the frame, third baseman Jordan Westburg botched a chopping ground ball from Raley on a play that was ruled an infield single. Yandy Díaz then hit a one-out single, and Terps standout Brandon Lowe singled home Raley, who narrowly scored after Aaron Hicks double-clutched his throw in right field.
Randy Arozarena then put the Rays up 3-1 with a two-run triple to right field. The All-Star left fielder has crushed Orioles pitching his whole career, entering Thursday with a .343 batting average and 1.058 OPS in 197 plate appearances against them.
The last time Bradish (11-7) allowed three runs in one inning was in the first against the Milwaukee Brewers on June 8. In the 98 2/3 innings between those two frames, Bradish emerged as an AL Cy Young Award candidate, recording a 2.19 ERA in that stretch.
Baltimore’s bats bounced back in the middle innings to tie the game. Henderson, the AL Rookie of the Year front-runner, clobbered a fastball in the fourth just over the right field wall to cut the Orioles’ deficit in half and bring his season home run total to 26.
Adam Frazier then tied the game with an RBI groundout after the Orioles loaded the bases in the fifth on bunt singles from Cedric Mullins and Jordan Westburg that bookended a walk by Aaron Hicks. But Rutschman ended the rally with a ground ball double play, and the Orioles wouldn’t reach base again.
During the three-game slide, Baltimore’s offense has managed just 16 hits and five runs while striking out 30 times. The Orioles went 1-for-3 with runners in scoring position Thursday, with the lone hit Westburg’s sacrifice bunt attempt, after going 1-for-18 in such situations against the struggling St. Louis Cardinals.
“Well, we punched out [15 times], so not going to do yourself any favors with that,” Hyde said. “I just think the two nights against St. Louis, those were kind of strange offensive games. And then tonight, this is a great pitching staff and their bullpen doesn’t give up many runs, and they haven’t for a while.
“We just had nothing going on once we got Civale out of the game.”
Hyde sent Bradish back out for the seventh to face the bottom of the Rays’ order and kept the right-hander in to face the left-handed hitting Luke Raley while southpaw Danny Coulombe warmed up in the bullpen. Raley, who might have been pinch-hit for had Coulombe entered, capitalized on that decision and hit his 19th homer of the season.
“Just threw a bad pitch to Raley right there,” said Bradish, who scattered seven hits and struck out five in seven innings. “Got to be better than that, know who’s on deck, a righty on deck, can’t give in right there and hang a slider.”
The last time the Orioles lost three in a row was a four-game skid that began in late June. They followed that stretch by winning nine of their next 11, including a season-best eight-game winning streak.
“It’s all been pretty close games, so all we’ve got to do is just get one big hit and that’ll turn it around,” Henderson said. “I feel like we’ve done that, and we’ll continue doing it.”
Rays at Orioles
Friday, 7:05 p.m.
TV: Apple TV
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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