TAMPA – Eight runs on seven hits.
That was the line for the Baltimore Orioles tonight in the second inning alone.
12 runs on 18 hits.
That was the line for the Tampa Bay Rays tonight in innings three through seven.
It culminated in a 12-8 Orioles loss, a tale of two games that Baltimore found themselves on the wrong end of. A contest that had the makings of a blowout still resulted in a victory with a comfortable margin, but not for the team that had an 8-0 advantage after two.
The barrage started in unassuming fashion. All-Star hopeful Ryan O’Hearn drew a five-pitch walk. Gary Sánchez followed with a hard-hit single. Then, the flood gates began to open.
In a two-strike count, as it was for his home run last night, Colton Cowser drove a splitter to center for a three-run home run. It was his fourth home run since returning from the injured list. Two batters later, Cedric Mullins hit a solo shot, his 12th long ball of the year. 4-0 Baltimore.
The next three batters reached, scoring another run, and brought Ramón Laureano to the dish. In an inning that would’ve made Earl smile, he delivered yet another three-run home run, putting the O’s up 8-0.
On a scale of one to Tempur-pedic, that’s a nice cushion.
On the other hand, though, an offensive outburst in one inning has some side effects. Specifically, it forces your starting pitcher to wait a very long time before re-entering the game.
Trevor Rogers cruised through his first inning of work with a fastball sitting around 95 mph. He got through the frame with just 19 pitches, 15 of which were strikes.
In the second, though, things got dicey.
After a long time in the dugout, Rogers didn’t look nearly as sharp. The lefty allowed a single and walked two batters to load the bases, but did escape the jam. The 36-pitch inning was a laborious one to say the least.
The third-inning brought more challenges. Rogers walked the first batter he saw in the third on four pitches, one of which was a fastball with some noticeably diminished velocity. Three of the next four batters he faced delivered hits and plated three runs, and that would be the night for Rogers.
It certainly wasn’t the return to the big league mound that he was hoping for, but any evaluation of his outing requires a lot of context. An extended half-inning on the bench, while giving you a very comfortable lead to work with, also makes it incredibly difficult to maintain adrenaline and rhythm. That led to a 36-pitch inning on the mound, which can snowball into bad results later on. In the records department, that one goes down as “weird” as opposed to “bad.”
Things didn’t get less stressful for Orioles pitching, though.
In the fourth, reliever Scott Blewett surrendered a triple and an RBI-single, as the Rays cut the lead to 8-4. Jonathan Aranda just missed a three-run home run, too, flying out 393 feet to center field.
Momentum is a fickle thing.
In the fifth, Tampa Bay added some more. Taylor Walls brought one home on an RBI-triple and scored one batter later on an RBI-single from Yandy Díaz.
Just like that, an 8-0 lead after two innings became an 8-6 lead in the fifth. A game that could’ve gotten out of hand became one firmly in reach for the Rays.
It only got worse from there.
Pinch-hitter Brandon Lowe launched a two-run home run on a Yennier Cano fastball that caught too much of the plate. A bullpen that had been one of the best in baseball in the month of June had suddenly allowed five earned runs in just 2 ⅓ innings of work.
After an eight-run second inning that put the Orioles up 8-0, the game was tied at eight after five innings.
Things settled down for just a bit, but the Rays came back for more in the seventh.
Andrew Kittredge retired the first two batters he saw in the inning, but things unraveled from there. The results of the next five hitters were as follows: single, walk, single, single, single. After the dust settled, the Rays had taken the lead and put up four more runs. Through seven innings, they had compiled a dozen runs on 18 hits.
The game had the makings of a huge one for the Orioles. A chance to gain some more ground in the standings and get back to single-digit games under .500 for the first time in a long time. Instead, it was a loss that's tough to swallow, using plenty of high-leverage bullpen arms in the process. The Birds bats didn't produce a hit after the second inning, either.
Baltimore will look to bounce back and split the series tomorrow.