On a Saturday night that Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer said, “they need to start winning”, the Baltimore Orioles did the exact opposite, falling 4-3 to the Tampa Bay Rays (52-47) at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Florida.
A leadoff single by Jackson Holliday, a Jordan Westburg double, a Gunnar Henderson sac. fly and a Ryan O’Hearn single gave the Orioles an early two run lead, equaling the total number of runs scored in their previous three games.
Ryan Ribbie
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— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) July 19, 2025
Another Quality Start
The score looked like it was going to hold up, especially in light of the way starter Dean Kremer was pitching. Kremer threw 98 pitches (63 K’s) across 7.0 innings, allowing just one run on three hits with a walk and six strike outs. It was his sixth start of at least 7.0 innings and his sixth quality start overall.
Kremer kept the Rays off of the scoreboard for six innings, allowing his lone run in the seventh. With runners on second and third and one out, Josh Lowe grounded out to Holliday, allowing Yandy Diaz to score.
Late Inning Let Down
Tampa Bay manufactured the tying run off of Seranthony Dominguez (2-3) in the eighth. Ha-Seong Kim led off the inning with a single to right field and then stole second base. He advanced to third by tagging up on a Matt Thaiss lineout to right and scored on a Chandler Simpson single.
Two walks loaded the bases before Gregory Soto was called upon to relieve Dominguez. Soto got Jonathan Aranda to hit a ground ball to O’Hearn. O’Hearn, who had to turn to his right to make the play, threw wide to Jacob Stalling’s left at home plate and saw two runs cross the plate. Soto, in his effort to cover first base may have distractrd O’Hearn on the play.
Dominguez was tagged with the loss for officially allowing three runs, two earned, over one-third of an inning.
Where Were The Additional Runs?
Tampa Bay pitching held the Orioles scoreless after the first inning outburst. Rays starter Zack Littell shut the Birds down for five innings after allowing the two first inning runs, giving up just four more hits over that span. The Orioles threatened in the fifth and sixth innings but failed to score further against Littell.
Baltimore also put runners in scoring position in each of the final three innings, scoring a run in the ninth on a Cedric Mullins pinch-hit RBI single followinf a Tyler O’Neill double. Overall the Orioles went 2 for 11 with runners in scoring position.
A bid to take the lead in the ninth fell about a foot short when Holliday’s fly ball to center with Mullins on second settled into Simpson’s glove.
Holliday had this to say about the hit, “I thought it had a chance, It’s pretty big out there to center, so I didn’t really know. I knew I hit it well. I guess I just hit it a little bit too high.”
Westburg had three hits, including a double.
Ramon Urias and Holliday each had a pair of hits; both of Urias’ hits were doubles.
Henderson stole two bases.
With a dozen games remaining before the MLB trade deadline the Orioles find themselves eleven games under .500 and remain 8.5 games back in the Wild Card race.
2025 Record: 43-54
Next Game: Sun. 7/20 @ 12:10 pm vs. Rays in Tampa Bay