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TAMPA – The Rays and Orioles entered play tonight as two of the hotter teams in baseball. The Florida heat only added to their rising temperatures.
Tampa Bay had won 18 of their last 25 and were on the heels of a three-game sweep of the New York Mets. The Orioles went 15-10 over that same stretch, 11-4 in their last 15, and were fresh off a three-game sweep of the Angels.
Something had to give.
Tonight, it was the O’s starting pitching that gave in a 7-1 loss. The pillar of their recent stretch of success was anything but.
Tampa Bay struck early and they struck often. On Zach Eflin’s fourth pitch of the game, Josh Lowe skied a ball to right field that found some outfield seats. At 334 feet with a 97.9 mph exit velocity, it was hit just well enough to get out of the ballpark.
The ball was only a home run at Steinbrenner Field. Even the park it was modeled after, Yankee Stadium, would’ve kept the ball in front of its short porch. Emblematic of the kind of roll the Rays have been on.
Eflin typically pitches to contact, but this contact early on had eyes. Through his first three innings of work, the right-hander allowed three runs on eight hits, four of which were over the 95 mph hard-hit threshold. But the second and third runs were on hits with 32.3 mph and 82.3 mph exit velos, respectively.
"Just probably location, right," Tony Mansolino said. "It seemed like he was kind of yanking some stuff ... I think when Ef's really good, it's kind of location-based. And tonight, he just didn't have his best location."
In the first inning, the short porch in right tooketh away. But to start the fourth, it gaveth. Adley Rutschman skied a ball to right that, much like Lowe’s fly ball, only would’ve been a home run in one of the majors' 30 ballparks. Luckily for Rutschman, he was in that one ballpark. His solo shot cut the Rays’ lead to 3-1.
"I hit it hard, didn’t know how high it was going to be because I hit it pretty hard off the bat, but I guess hit the ball hard and let the good things happen," Rutschman said.
The bottom of the frame, though, didn’t bring any batted-ball luck. Former Maryland Terrapin Brandon Lowe connected on an Eflin changeup and drove it 426 feet to right-center field. That one was a home run in just about every ballpark, and it pushed the Rays' advantage to 5-1.
"My shapes weren’t typical today, so it’s kind of hard to locate when I expect them to do something and they weren’t doing it," Eflin said of his performance. "And they did a good job battling me. They had a good game plan coming in. They had a lot of first-pitch hits, playing small ball with a couple of bunts and stuff. So hats off to those guys."
Soft contact or weak contact, Tampa Bay just found a way to put runs on the board. They poured it on in the fifth.
Tampa Bay’s hitters started the inning with a single and back-to-back doubles to push their lead to 7-1. Eflin is known for living in the zone, but tonight he was catching too much of it. His 12 hits allowed are the most in his big league career.
The heat didn't help.
"There for a batter or two, I had some sweaty hands," Eflin mentioned. "I just had to grab some rosin and ended up bringing a little pocket towel out there for the next inning. I didn’t, honestly, really even use it too much the next inning. But yeah, I just had some sweaty hands there for a couple batters."
The former Ray's day was done after those five innings, a tough outing after allowing just four earned runs in his previous three starts combined.
There wasn’t much offense to speak of off Baltimore’s bats. Outside of Rutschman’s home run, there were a few hits sprayed here and there, but not many true scoring threats. A 7-1 game after five innings felt out of hand relatively quickly.
It felt that way, in large part, because of the dominance of Rays starter Ryan Pepiot.
The headliner of Tampa's Tyler Glasnow trade, Pepiot was masterful on this muggy night in Florida. The right-hander cruised through eight innings and allowed just one run on four hits, striking out 11 along the way. His fastball-changeup combination was clicking all night, accounting for nine of his 11 strikeouts.
"The fastball looked like he had a lot of life, right," Mansolino said of Pepiot. "Some of the swings {Ramón) Urías took, you never see him take swings like that, so probably tip your cap to the pitcher right there. Then the changeup was really good as well ... I thought we battled, he was just better."
He left the O's bats stifled and silent, fading quietly into the Tampa night.
"He’s got a really good fastball, and changeup's got a lot of depth to it for lefties, complements that cutter-slider a bit," Rutschman said. "So, just does a good job of working ahead and using the strength."
But this series is a marathon, not a sprint. The Orioles are still in the midst of their stretch of 16 consecutive days with a game, and this week is their biggest test yet. Four games against the Rays followed by three against the Yankees in New York. There's a long way to go.
"It’s as advertised," Mansolino said of the Rays. "It’s contact, it’s speed, there’s some home runs in there, too. It’s pitching, it’s defense. It’s a really good team right now. They’re playing great."
Tomorrow, Dean Kremer will take the mound against Zack Littell, who has completed six innings of work in all but three of his 14 starts this year. Baltimore's offense will search for some more success.
