In the top of the 1st inning the Tampa Bay Rays went to work against Orioles pitcher Matt Harvey, Harvey dug himself a hole by issuing a walk with two outs, which ended up putting the Orioles in a 3-0 hole before they had an opportunity to bat. Harvey would battle and settle down the rest of the game for the O’s as he went 6 innings, gave up three runs, and earned a quality start. Harvey drops to 6-14 on the season while lowering his ERA to 6.18. Shane McClanahan went six innings giving up two runs on eight hits to improve his record 9-4.
Yandy Diaz drove in the first run in tonight’s ballgame with an RBI single to left field and Manuel Margot would add two more runs for the Rays with an RBI single of his own up the middle to increase the lead to 3-0. In the 3rd inning the Oriole bats started to make hard contact when Jahmai Jones hit a ball to the warning track, just missing a homerun by a matter of feet. In the bottom of the 4th inning the Orioles continued making hard contact and it payed off with a Trey Mancini single; his 600th career hit, two batters later LF Austin Hays hit a homerun to center field for his 14th homerun of the season to cut the Rays lead to 3-2. After Matt Harvey left the game the Tampa Bay Rays took advantage of the Oriole bullpen, Mike Zunino would hit a three-run homerun in the top of 7th inning off of Tanner Scott to give the Rays a 6-2 lead. Cedric Mullins added a solo homerun in the bottom of the 9th inning to cut the lead to 6-3, the Orioles would ultimately end up losing by the final of 6-3.
Tampa Bay six runs on five hits and one error.
Baltimore 3 runs on 10 hits and zero errors.
Things that went well for Baltimore tonight; the defense made spectacular play after spectacular play to back the pitching staff up. The starting pitching battled all night despite a difficult 1st inning and gave the team a chance to win.
Things that did not go well for Baltimore tonight; the offense swung early in counts in the 1st three innings of the game giving McClanahan relatively easy outs, the offense hit the ball hard but could not come through with RISP going 0-3 and leaving eight men on base throughout the course of the ballgame. The bullpen struggled in the 7th inning when the game was still 3-2 in favor of the Rays, the three-run homerun by Zunino effectively ended the game.
Attendance for tonight’s game: 7155
