The defeat combined with a Yankees victory means that the Orioles have fallen into second place.
One of the hallmarks of the 2024 Orioles season is their penchant for playing games that are perfectly calibrated to make everybody mad. Since June, they have been playing these games exactly half of the time. Saturday afternoon brought on another one of these games. The first Rays batter of the game hit a home run and the O’s never came back from that on the way to a 7-1 loss.
Over the whole game, the Orioles only had six hits. The O’s had early scoring opportunities – bases loaded with one out in the second, first and third with one out in the third – that they completely failed to capitalize on. There was a crucial error, the wrong end of a home run robbery, and Craig Kimbrel giving up a run in garbage time. Combine all of these and it’s a tough way to try to win. Elsewhere, Connor Norby homered and the Yankees shut out the Cubs, flipping the top of the AL East so that it’s now New York half a game ahead of the O’s.
Another thing that wasn’t fun is that all of this happened in a Zach Eflin start. The Orioles had yet to lose any of the previous five starts that Eflin made since joining the organization at the end of July. Eflin pitched well in every one of these other games. The lack of offense on Saturday meant he would have had to be flawless to win, and he wasn’t.
Following a rain delay of about 30 minutes, it took all of five pitches from Eflin before the Rays grabbed a lead. Their first batter, Yandy Díaz, did not miss as a sweeper swept into the middle-middle part of the strike zone instead of where a sweeper is supposed to sweep. Díaz launched a rocket up over Walltimore, towards the back of the seating that remains up there. That’s a no-doubter.
Fast forward to the third inning and the story went similarly, with Rays shortstop Taylor Walls getting a fastball middle-middle and not missing. Impressively and terribly, Walls entered Saturday’s game with zero home runs in 177 at-bats across 68 games. After he rounded the bases for his first home run of the 2024 campaign, the Rays led, 2-0.
In between these two home runs, the Orioles had what proved to be their most promising opportunity for a big inning. Starting with one out, Colton Cowser drew a walk, Cedric Mullins reached on a catcher interference call, and Jackson Holliday whipped a line drive into the right field grass.
The pressure was on Rays starter Ryan Pepiot. Well, sort of. The thing is that the next two batters due up were the #8 and #9 guys, Emmanuel Rivera and James McCann. Rivera has made some good things happen in his brief time with the Orioles, and McCann’s two seasons with the team have mixed in some clutch hits along with his overall bad hitting. It wasn’t guaranteed to go badly. That’s what happened anyway, with Rivera striking out on three pitches before McCann hit a harmless fly ball.
After falling behind 2-0, there was another good chance that came along in the bottom of the third. Again starting with one out, Adley Rutschman drew a walk. He was able to race to third as Ryan O’Hearn hit a single. This time it was the #4 and #5 hitters who would try to cash in. Anthony Santander hit a shallow fly ball that wouldn’t have scored anybody, let alone a catcher, and Cowser worked the count full before striking out. Sigh.
How many ways can you find to fail to score? Here’s another: The Orioles had another almost-rally in the bottom of the fourth with consecutive two-out singles by Rivera and McCann. This turned the lineup over to give Gunnar Henderson another crack at Pepiot. Henderson worked a full count, fouling off four straight pitches, before launching the ninth pitch of the at-bat towards the center field bleachers.
It was one of those balls where you knew off the bat that thing was going to go over the fence. Except, center fielder José Siri had other ideas. Siri floated confidently back towards the fence, timed his leap perfectly, went full extension, and hauled in what would have been a go-ahead three-run home run. There was nothing for Henderson to do except tip his helmet in respect and then slam it in frustration.
Things continued to progress stupidly from there. Eflin was ultimately unable to get through the sixth inning, finishing with three runs allowed on eight hits over a 5.2 inning outing. Not great, especially by his early Orioles standards. Gregory Soto doing Gregory Soto things plus O’Hearn playing bad defense at first base led to two more Rays runs in the seventh, and Burch Smith in the eighth and Kimbrel in the ninth each gave up one more. It’s a bullpen that gets shaky quickly. Only Matt Bowman had a scoreless outing of the O’s who pitched in this one.
The lone Orioles run was the result of Mullins hitting a home run to lead off the sixth inning. He’s got 15 on the season now, and his season OPS is up over .700 for the first time since April. This was also the final Orioles hit in the game. Three Rays relievers combined to hold the O’s hitless for the last 3.2 innings. Sheesh.
If the Orioles turn right back around and win tomorrow afternoon, at least the bad feelings won’t linger long. The thing about losing 50% of the time since June is that the Orioles have also won 50% of the time since June. It is incredible that they are anywhere near first place given that fact, but it’s true. They could be back in first tomorrow night. All they have to do is win while the Yankees lose. It’s not so much to ask, is it?
Sunday’s series finale is set for a 12:05 start, with the unusual TV destination of The Roku Channel. Corbin Burnes will be looking to put a poor August fully behind him as he starts for the O’s, with the Rays turning to Zack Littell.