Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash tried to keep his top relievers rested for this crucial series at Baltimore — and one by one, they came out of the bullpen and shut down the Orioles.
Luke Raley on Thursday hit a tiebreaking homer in the seventh inning as Tampa Bay’s remarkable bullpen retired everyone it faced in the Rays’ 4-3 victory over the Orioles.
The Rays won the opener of this four-game showdown to pull within a game of first-placed Baltimore in the Amercian League East. Their relievers extended their streak to 34 innings without an earned run.
Photo: AFP
“We’ve spent a lot of time the last 10, 12 days talking about this series, and knowing the importance of our bullpen being fresh,” Cash said. “Minnesota had other plans yesterday, that we had to use a lot of them, but those guys really stepped up in a big way.”
Ryan O’Hearn and Gunnar Henderson homered for the Orioles, but with the game tied at 3-3, Raley hit a drive to center field off Kyle Bradish (11-7) for his 19th home run of the year.
Randy Arozarena hit a two-run triple in the third inning for the Rays, while Tampa Bay starter Aaron Civale got Adley Rutschman to hit into a crucial double play in the fifth after the Orioles had come back to tie it at 3-3.
After that, Civale turned the game over to the bullpen. Colin Poche (12-3), Shawn Armstrong, Robert Stephenson and Pete Fairbanks teamed up to retire 12 straight batters, with Fairbanks striking out the side for his 24th save in 26 chances.
“Their bullpen doesn’t give up many runs, and they haven’t for a while,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “We had nothing going once we got Civale out of the game.”
Fairbanks had two days off before the game. Armstrong, Poche and Stephenson all pitched on Wednesday in a win at Minnesota, but they had all had two days off before that. The result was a group of relievers who certainly looked like they were in peak form.
“I don’t know if you’ve been around many bullpens, but our level of focus throughout the majority of the game isn’t great,” Fairbanks said. “Obviously, when that phone rings and when we start our prep work, we start getting locked in and go from there.”
Cedric Mullins made a terrific diving catch in the gap in right-center on a ball that might have scored a run in the top of the second inning. Then O’Hearn led off the bottom of the inning with a homer that put the Orioles up 1-0.
Tampa Bay answered immediately. Third baseman Jordan Westburg could not handle Raley’s leadoff grounder, and that infield single started a three-run rally. Brandon Lowe hit an RBI single and Arozarena followed with a triple to make it 3-1.
Henderson hit a leadoff homer in the fourth inning and then the Orioles tied it in the fifth without hitting the ball out of the infield.
Mullins led off with a bunt single when the ball rolled dead on the dirt about halfway to third base. After a walk by Aaron Hicks, Westburg popped up a bunt, but the ball fell between Civale and catcher Christian Bethancourt for a single to load the bases.
Adam Frazier tied it by grounding into a force play, but Civale then escaped the inning when Rutschman grounded into a double play on the first pitch.
Elsewhere, the Mets mastered the Diamondbacks 11-1, the Rangers routed the Blue Jays 9-2, the Tigers tamed the Reds 8-2, the Twins walloped the White Sox 10-2, the Brewers beat the Marlins 4-2 and the Pirates sank the Nationals 2-0.
In a doubleheader, the Red Sox blanked the Yankees 5-0 in Game 1, before the Yankees rallied to defeat the Red Sox 8-5 in Game 2.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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