Orioles top Rays, 5-3, to win pivotal series, take two-game lead atop AL East – The Denver Post

As the Orioles approached the second half of the season, adding a high-leverage reliever was seen as the club’s biggest need.

Mike Baumann pitched like one Sunday.

The right-hander relieved a shaky Tyler Wells in the fifth inning of a tied game, pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings as the offense pulled ahead, then handed the ball off to the dominant duo of Yennier Cano and Félix Bautista to lead the Orioles’ 5-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.

“Player of the game for me,” manager Brandon Hyde said about Baumann. “That was two-plus innings right in the meat of the game there, just did a great job keeping the score right there for us and getting to Cano and Bautista.”

The win was Baltimore’s third over the Rays this weekend in a pivotal four-game series between the American League’s two best teams. The Orioles (61-38) arrived in St. Petersburg tied with the Rays (61-42) atop the AL East. They’re leaving with a two-game lead.

Wells allowed just one hit, but struggled with his command throughout, walking four and hitting two batters. After three scoreless innings, the 6-foot-8 right-hander allowed a run in the fourth and a two-run, game-tying home run to Yandy Díaz in the fifth.

“It feels great,” Wells said of the series victory. “Obviously, I didn’t do my job today as a starter, but Baumann came in, picked me up, and Cano and Bautista doing an outstanding job. … That’s what our team is about, picking each other up. I think that’s a big reason we’re in first place right now and hopefully that continues, but extremely proud of the guys and very thankful to have all of them.”

Gunnar Henderson and Ryan O’Hearn powered the offense with home runs. The former hit a majestic, two-run blast in the second that traveled 446 feet according to Statcast; the latter hit a go-ahead solo shot in the sixth that traveled just 331 feet. Adley Rutschman and Anthony Santander also recorded RBI hits.

The victory was Baumann’s seventh of the season — a surprisingly high total for a middle reliever — without a loss. He has more wins than Kyle Bradish (six) and as many as Wells (seven), the Orioles’ top two starting pitchers. Over his past 11 2/3 innings, Baumann has allowed just seven hits and one earned run. He walked two and didn’t surrender a hit Sunday.

Cano and Bautista followed Baumann, with the duo pitching for the fourth time in five days but not looking fatigued. Cano retired the side in order in the eighth to lower his ERA to 1.48, while Bautista recorded his 28th save with a scoreless ninth to drop his to 0.92. The Orioles as a team allowed just three hits in the win.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the four-game series win in St. Petersburg is just the Orioles’ second since the Rays joined MLB in 1998; the first was in April 2006. The last time the Orioles won a series of at least three games at Tropicana Field was in June 2017. They most recently won three games in a series at Tampa Bay in May 2014.

“Tough place to play, trouble playing here in the past,” said Hyde, whose Orioles went 3-18 at Tropicana Field from 2020 to 2022. “And we just played four really good games against a really good team and just really proud of all of our guys’ effort.”

Rutschman put the Orioles on the board early in the series finale with an RBI double to score Henderson, who led off the game with an infield single. Rutschman launched a 109.3 mph frozen rope off Rays starter Taj Bradley, a rookie who pitched six innings of one-run ball against the Orioles in June.

An inning later, Henderson hit his mammoth home run that ricocheted off the catwalk at Tropicana Field.

“That was loud and far,” Hyde said. “How far was that? It only went 446? I’ll take the over on that. Check the Statcast here in the Trop. But that was loud and a beautiful swing.”

The long ball was the fourth-farthest by an Oriole this season. Henderson has three of the club’s six farthest homers. The 22-year-old stayed on Bradley’s 2-2 curveball and smoked it 111.2 mph. Since 2008, only eight other Orioles have hit a home run that hard and that far.

“I felt like I got that one pretty good,” Henderson said. “That was the first time I hit the catwalk. Never done it in BP, so it was pretty cool to see that.”

Wells, who plunked two batters in the first three innings but didn’t allow a hit, further lost his command in the fourth. He walked the first two batters of the frame, allowing one to score on a Brandon Lowe groundout. He issued another free pass to lead off the fifth before Díaz’s game-tying homer — the 23rd he’s allowed in 19 starts.

“I just didn’t have a good rhythm,” Wells said. “Obviously, the walks, the hit batters, not what I want. And, ultimately, I paid for it. Very frustrating to say the least.”

Hyde pulled him for Baumann one batter later, ending Wells’ afternoon at 4 1/3 innings. Wells pitched at least five innings in each of his first 18 outings this season, but he’s failed to do so in back-to-back starts. In his two second-half outings, he’s surrendered seven hits, six walks and eight runs in 6 1/3 innings.

Hyde said the club will continue to monitor Wells’ innings throughout the second half. The 28-year-old has already thrown more innings this year than he did as a member of Baltimore’s rotation last year.

“He doesn’t normally hit guys or walk people. He’s the league-leader in WHIP for a reason,” Hyde said. “That’s why I took him out of the game, honestly, because it wasn’t a normal Tyler Wells inning. We’ll continue to monitor him. He’s thrown a lot of innings and he’s not used to this many innings, but we need him.”

O’Hearn’s homer off left-hander Colin Poche was the second straight game he’s delivered the go-ahead hit after his RBI single in Saturday’s victory. It was an unusual long ball for multiple reasons. The homer was just his fourth off a left-handed pitcher in his six-year career and his first since June 2019. It was also hit just 331 feet, hitting off the bottom of the foul pole at the Trop’s short porch in left field for the fifth-shortest homer in the majors this season.

“I might take the under on O’Hearn’s,” Hyde quipped, playing off his comment on Henderson’s homer. “Ryan O’Hearn’s gotten huge hits for us this year and continues to be an absolute gamer. Love the way he plays.”

The oddity is why O’Hearn carried a big smile as he rounded the bases.

“Homers like that are kind of funny,” he said. “Left-on-left, which I don’t face many lefties, and just to shoot it down the line and then hits the foul pole. Obviously, a great spot in the game to get a run there, but personally for me, it warranted a smile.”

The Orioles are 6-3 against the Rays just two seasons after going 1-18 versus them in 2021. With MLB’s new balanced schedule, the two clubs play just four more times this season, all at Camden Yards in September. Baltimore needs to win just one of those games to claim the season series for the first time since 2016 — the last season in which it made the postseason. Winning the season series could be a potentially key factor in determining who will claim the division crown should it come down to the head-to-head tiebreaker.

“It was a grinder every game,” O’Hearn said of the series. “They’ve got a really good team over there, and so do we. … I’m glad we came out on top. Also, it’s only July. We’ve got a long way to go. Definitely take a win here on the road against these guys and feel good about ourselves.”

Around the horn

• Right-hander Austin Voth (elbow discomfort) continued his minor league rehabilitation assignment Sunday, starting and pitching two innings for Double-A Bowie. Voth, who began the assignment Thursday in the Florida Complex League, allowed two hits and one run while striking out two without a walk. He gave up hits to Nationals top prospects Robert Hassell III (solo home run) and James Wood (double). He threw 27 pitches, of which 22 were strikes.
• Left-hander T.J. McFarland, a veteran who returned to the organization on a minor league contract Saturday, pitched one inning of relief Sunday for Triple-A Norfolk. McFarland pitched four years in Baltimore between 2013 and 2016 and since played for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Oakland Athletics, St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets.

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