The good news came early for the Orioles tonight, as if they were owned a few breaks. The temperature dipped into the mid-70s to provide some relief from the scorching heat. CB Bucknor wouldn’t work the plate in the series, confined instead to the bases for three games. Tomoyuki Sugano struck out the first two batters he faced and retired the Rays in order. Jordan Westburg doubled in the bottom of the first on a 106.6 mph liner that deflected off third baseman Junior Caminero.

And then, the bad times rolled. Westburg dived into the bag and reinjured his index finger, which led to his removal an inning later. The Rays homered three times off Sugano in the second, including Brandon Lowe’s three-run shot.

The cliché about two teams heading in opposite directions unfolded and then paused, with the Orioles playing the opposite role in a big blown lead versus the Rays. They did the rallying this time, along with some major venting, in a preposterous 22-8 victory before an announced crowd of 20,047 at misty Camden Yards.

Gary Sánchez had four RBIs, including a go-ahead two-run homer in the fifth, Coby Mayo hit his first major league homer - off a shortstop - and also drove in four runs, and the Orioles (35-46) won for the second time in six games. The Rays (46-36) lost for only the fourth time in 14 games.

"You know over the course of 162 there's going to be a lot of ups and downs. There's going to be a lot of highs and lows, and we've had our lows. Tonight was a high," said interim manager Tony Mansolino.

"It was fun to watch the kids have a good time tonight. And, you know, it's fun to hear people chant for Gary and all that stuff. But no, it's just one game, I think we all know that. ... Just proud of the guys, you know, proud of them in a lot of different ways."

Westburg missed three games after spraining his finger in New York but avoided the injured list. Mansolino said X-rays were negative tonight and Westburg is day-to-day again.

"He cannot change his DNA," Mansolino said. "The kids plays as hard as anyone in the game. I would probably put it at, going into that thing at 90-95 percent. It's not 100 percent, it wasn't 100 percent when he came back the other day. But it's safe, it's not something that you expect to be aggravated unless maybe he does the exact same thing, which he did.

"It sounds like it's not nearly as bad as last time. So hopefully it's a couple days and we get them back in there. Tough kid."

Back-to-back doubles by Ramón Laureano and Colton Cowser in the fifth preceded Sánchez’s homer off Eric Orze, which gave him 501 career RBIs and the Orioles an 8-7 lead. Cowser finished with a career-high three doubles, the last scoring Ramón Urías in the sixth, and Sánchez followed with a two-run single. Laureano added a two-run single in the seventh, Sánchez reached on a two-out error with the bases loaded and Cedric Mullins walked for a 15-8 lead.

There was more. Much, much more.

A Tampa Bay bullpen with a 3.30 ERA before tonight allowed 10 earned runs and 12 total, including three by Edwin Uceta in the sixth, and that was before shortstop José Caballero made his pitching debut in the ninth and surrendered a two-run homer to Gunnar Henderson, who came within a double of the cycle, Mullins' two-run double and Mayo's two-run shot. Jackson Holliday led off the inning with his 10th home run, again aiming at the bullpen, and he did it against an actual reliever.

The box score shows 18 runs, 16 earned, from the 'pen. 

Fun times for the Orioles?

"I would say from a production standpoint," Cowser said with a grin. "The weather was crap. I didn’t have anything dry on my body.

"It was a lot of fun. I feel like that’s what this team is capable of, and being able to go out there and have a game like that, hopefully continues that motivation and confidence.”

The Orioles are the first team to win by at least 14 runs after trailing by six, per the Elias Sports Bureau.

Mayo tossed his bat and shrugged at teammates in the dugout.

“I’m proud of him," Cowser said "Hopefully, they didn’t take it the wrong way with the little shrug there. He just thought that it was funny to get it off a position player. Extremely happy for him.”

"To start the inning, I think (Kyle) Bradish and (Dean) Kremer and some of them were like, ‘Get Coby up, get Coby up,'" Mayo said. "When you’re anticipating it happening, I think is kind of when it doesn’t happen. The only thing that goes into the back of your head is, ‘Oh God, I’m going to strike out to a position player and be 1-for-6 today.’ But obviously, there’s a flip side of the best result, and that was the homer. It’s just crazy.

"It’s a really good group of guys, super close-knit group, and I think everyone pulls for one another and it’s been really fun to play baseball here the last month. It’s been a blast. It reminds me of the fun we had back in Norfolk a few years ago, just everyone’s really close and we keep it light. If a series doesn’t go our way, who cares, the next one, keep playing. There’s a lot of really good ballplayers in here and we’re just going to keep grinding out these games and see where we end up."

The home run came on Mayo's 106th major league at-bat.

"You never know how it’s going to happen, how it’s going to come, when it’s going to come and for this to come in this kind of fashion goes to show you life is just so crazy and unexpected," he said. "You can never predict what’s going to happen. An awesome moment obviously, no matter who it’s off of. It’s a really cool thing.

“Over the last few weeks, I stopped worrying about it. I think I’ve been swinging the bat a little bit better, and I was hoping those results were just going to lead into some more of the power."

The Orioles retrieved the ball for Mayo, from "a college group of girls and a few guys," he said. A trade was made, well before baseball's deadline.

"They were super nice and really grateful from them to get the ball back, make the process pretty easy," he said.

“They got some balls. She asked for a bat so she’s going to get that when they come back the next game.”

Sugano looked as though he’d fail to complete five innings for the fourth consecutive start, but he made it on 86 pitches and was charged with a major league career-high seven runs and nine hits to increase his ERA to 4.06. Sugano has surrendered a homer in 12 of his 16 outings.

"I think throughout my career it was my first time getting hit around like that and actually getting a win," he said via interpreter Yuto Sakurai. "It was my first time. I was quite happy."

Before tonight, Sugano hadn’t allowed more than four runs in any of his 15 starts, and he permitted three earned runs or fewer in 14. The Rays led 6-0 after the second.

"I think including today but the last couple outings I was pretty tense in my body, so I was able to make that adjustment third inning moving forward," Sugano said. "Frenchy (Drew French) actually give me really good advice on, you know, being a little relaxed upper body, so that really helped."

Both teams sent nine batters to the plate in the inning.

Jonathan Aranda and Josh Lowe homered on cutters, the first ball traveling 433 feet to center field and the other 400 feet to right. Danny Jansen had an RBI single after speedster Chandler Simpson’s walk and stolen base, Yandy Díaz singled and Brandon Lowe drove a curveball into the seats in right-center.

The Orioles loaded the bases against Ryan Pepiot with no outs and scored four times. Pepiot didn’t make it out of the inning after holding them to one run over eight frames in Tampa.

Mayo had a two-run double and Urías, pinch-hitting for Westburg, delivered a two-run single. Pepiot was done after Henderson singled, and Mason Montgomery struck out Ryan O’Hearn, who slammed his bat and helmet.

Sugano retired the side in order in the third and the Orioles cut deeper into the lead in the bottom half on Laureano’s walk, Sánchez’s one-out single, and Jansen’s throwing error on Laureano’s stolen base. At this point, the flashbacks to the Orioles’ blown 8-0 lead in Tampa were blinding.

The first two Rays were retired in the fourth before three straight singles, the last by Brandon Lowe, gave them a 7-5 lead. But Sánchez blistered a slider from Orze at 111.7 mph off the bat and an offense that was one-hit twice in a span of five games pounded Tampa Bay pitching for 21 and came within one run of the franchise record set on Sept. 28, 2000 against the Blue Jays. They scored 22 on June 13, 1999 in Atlanta. The nine doubles tied the franchise record.

"I don't think you expect to when you’re down 6-0 to Pepiot and the Tampa Bay Rays that again turns into whatever that thing just turned into," Mansolino said. "On the same token, I don't think they probably expected last week to be down 8-0 in the second and do what they did to us. So baseball is a crazy game, man. It's poetic in a lot of ways. Tonight was one of those nights.”

“I’m proud of our guys, kind of getting slapped in the mouth there and then being able to respond with the four-run inning and being able to continue to scrap," Cowser said. "We know what that team’s capable of, so it was one of those things where we got the lead, we wanted to continue to put our foot down and have the throttle going.”

* Chayce McDermott started for Norfolk tonight and allowed three runs and five hits in four innings. He walked five and struck out five, and his ERA is 7.84.

Levi Wells tossed five scoreless innings with one hit allowed at Double-A Chesapeake and lowered his ERA to 2.91. Tyler O’Neill played right field and went 1-for-3 with a walk.