Homers from Holliday, Jackson, and O’Hearn led the offense to a Sunday afternoon win in Tampa.
The Orioles long, difficult weekend in Tampa came to an end on Sunday with a tense 5-3 win over the hosting Rays.
Jackson Holliday woke the offense up out of the chute. He stroked the second pitch of the day—a changeup down and in—and pulled it just beyond the fence in right-center field for an immediate 1-0 lead.
But the real fireworks took place in the third inning. That is the frame in which the Orioles scored three times and saw both their right fielder and their manager get ejected from the game.
Alex Jackson led the third inning off with a solo homer, his first as an Oriole and something of a revenge moment against his former club. Holliday followed with a walk, Jordan Westburg singled, and then Gunnar Henderson scored them both with a double into right-center field.
It felt like an inning that might explode into a massive number. Rays starter Ryan Pepiot looked uncomfortable on the mound, fiddling with his landing spot and the ball quite a bit. Instead, he would settle down. Ryan O’Hearn flew out and then Ramón Laureano struck out on a questionably called swinging strike on a pitch up in the zone.
The half-swing was appealed to first base umpire John Libka, whom rung Laureano up. The O’s right fielder was clearly not pleased with the call. He also seemed to lose track of the number of outs in the inning. He slammed his helmet to the ground, and then started to take all of his batting gear off, as a fielder would do at the end of an inning when they don’t need to return to the dugout and instead head out to their position. None of it would be necessary as Laureano was tossed from the game altogether by home plate umpire James Hoye. That prompted Tony Mansolino to come out of the dugout to defend Laureano and give Hoye a piece of his mind too. So Hoye sent the interim skipper on his way as well.
If it had actually been the third out of the inning, Laureano probably would not have been thrown out. Obviously, he did not like the call, but he also didn’t seem like he wanted to outwardly argue the call. But given the actual situation—players on base and an out to go—the helmet throw was an unwelcome delay to the game, and so he had to go. On a hot day at the end of a rough weekend, an early shower probably wasn’t the worst thing to happen to Laureano.
On the other side of the ball, Trevor Rogers was providing another solid pitching performance.
Rogers wiggled out of a bases loaded jam in the first inning, and then worked a much more efficient 1-2-3 frame in the second. Things got a bit dicey in the middle innings.
The Rays got on the board in the bottom of the third inning. Yandy Díaz doubled to center field, and then came in to score on a Junior Caminero single. In the bottom of the fourth, Danny Jansen doubled their total with a solo homer to left-center field.
But that is all Rogers would cough up as he faced the minimum in the fifth and sixth innings. At 91 pitches it is possible he would have returned for the seventh inning, but the rain came and made the decision for the Orioles. Even still, it was just the latest example of Rogers’ return to the form of his early career.
What’s most impressive is that Rogers managed to navigate six good innings without his best stuff. His velocity was down a tick or two on the gun, and he got just six whiffs all afternoon. But he limited his free passes and forced the Rays offense to beat him. Despite a decent amount of hard contact, they couldn’t do it. It was an impressive, mature showing from Rogers.
Just before the rain came, O’Hearn gave the Orioles their fifth run of the game. In the top of the sixth inning, the O’s all-star rep smacked his 12th home run of the season to right field. Who needs a left-handed bat? That trade value just keeps ticking up.
The rain delay between the sixth and seventh innings was not a welcome development for the Orioles. It felt like they were rolling, and the two-hour-and-36-minute delay killed all of their momentum.
The offense collected three hits from the seventh inning on, but could not convert any of them into runs. But that was an issue all game. The Orioles went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, once again relaying heavily on home runs for their offense.
The O’s bullpen did a fine job of getting the game into their closer’s hands. Yennier Cano and Andrew Kittredge combined for two scoreless innings. But Félix Bautista was not at the top of his game.
Bautista walked Jansen to start the inning. A strikeout and passed ball moved Jansen to second, where he was set up to score on a Taylor Walls single to make it 5-3. A pop out of Chandler Simpson put the O’s on the doorstep of a win, and then Bautista lost the strike zone. He issued walks to Ha-Seong Kim and Díaz, which brought up Junior Caminero. Bautista then threw four straight balls to Caminero, but the fourth was incorrectly called a strike. That saved Bautista big time, and allowed him to get down in the zone with his sinker. Caminero chased another ball, and then swung (and missed) the only actual strike of the at-bat for the final out of the game.
It was a dicey afternoon for the O’s. The offense showed up a little bit, struggling to manufacture runs, but putting together a good showing with five runs scored. Rogers was good despite lacking his best stuff, and the bullpen was a mixed bag.
The weekend as a whole further exposed the Orioles weaknesses and why they will (most likely) be selling in the next 10 days. That’s unfortunate given where expectations were back in February, but makes sense in the context.
Up next for the Orioles is a trip to Cleveland for a four-game set against the Guardians. That is a yet another tough test. The Guardians have bounced back from a rough patch, and have put themselves in position to make a run at the playoffs. Tomoyuki Sugano (7-5, 4.44 ERA) will start the opener against Tanner Bibee (5-9, 4.29 ERA). First pitch is set for 6:40 from Progressive Field.