Crooked Numbers, More Great Pitching Helps Rays Sweep Orioles With 8-0 Rout
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Tampa Bay's offense put up a couple of crooked numbers on Sunday and cruised to an easy 8-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles to sweep the season-opening series.
It was only the third time in franchise history that the Rays have opened the season with a 3-0 record. They've had great pitching and defense all weekend, but the bats finally came alive on Sunday, scoring four runs in both the second and seventh innings.
Brandon Lowe had the big hit early with a two-run home run, all part of several great at-bats that forced the pitch count up quickly on Orioles starter Tyler Wells. Rays hitters have been patient all weekend, but the results finally came in a big way on Sunday.
“It was good to see the overall offense break out,'' Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "Wells is tough, and he's a young kid who has electric stuff, so it was good to get four off of him, and get to their bullpen. It was good to see Brandon get his big hit. It went a long way.
“We’ve grinded out at-bats. We made a young pitcher in Wells build his pitch count up more than he’d like and then Brandon capitalized on a two-strike fastball. That’s the message we give to hitters and they buy into that approach, just not making it easy for pitchers. Just make sure we get good pitches to handle, and then when we do, handle them.’’
Yandi Diaz and rookie Josh Lowe coaxed walks to start the second inning, and then Harold Ramirez reached on an infield single with none out. They got the first run on a Mike Zunino sacrifice fly — their fourth of the weekend — and scored the second run on a groundout from Manny Margot.
But then Lowe — who hit 39 homers a year ago — hit a massive 437-foot bomb to right-center to make it 4-0.
Brandon Lowe - Tampa Bay Rays (1) pic.twitter.com/c2ItWVbdg6
— MLB HR Videos (@MLBHRVideos) April 10, 2022
Margot and Lowe opened the seventh with singles, and shortstop Wander Franco, who had his second three-hit game of the weekend, drove them both in with a single. Ji-Man Choi doubled to score Franco, and Harold Ramirez singled to make it 8-0.
The Rays outscored the Orioles 15-4 over the weekend and now have won 15 games in a row against Baltimore dating back to last summer. It's the sixth-longest streak against one opponent in major-league history. The Rays are 21-1 against Baltimore since the start of last season and have swept them in six of seven series.
For the third straight day, the Rays' pitching was excellent. Corey Kluber, making his first start for the Rays, threw 87 pitches, far more than Shane McClanahan (68) and Drew Rasmussen (64) tossed the first two days of the series.
Cash tried to get him through the fifth, but after getting the first two outs, Kluber allowed a walk and a single, and that was enough.
Still, the Rays rotation is basically one hung cutter by Rasmussen away from tossing 13 scoreless innings, which is a nice way to start the season.
“Pumped for Klubs. We wanted to get that final out in the fifth, but we felt like that pitch count was getting to the point where we were getting uncomfortable,'' Cash said. "He’s going to have plenty of opportunities to get his W’s. As far as I’m concerned, he should get the win, but I know that’s not the rule.''
Kluber threw 26 pitches in the first inning, and had four walks on the day. But he navigated all the traffic on the base paths pretty well and kept the Orioles off the scoreboard.
"I threw more pitches and didn't control counts the way I would like to eventually, but at the end of the day, I made pitches when I needed to to keep them off the scoreboard,'' Kluber said. ''Every pitcher will take that run support. That was a big lift early.
"I had some pitches that weren't that competitive, but I was able to make adjustments and reel it back in. Clean innings are ideal, but that's not always going to be the case.''
The Rays' bullpen was solid once again, too, pitching 4 1/3 scoreless innings and allowing just three hits. They've allowed just two runs in 14 innings so far.
The four runs allowed all weekend set a record for an opening series. The previous record was eight.
Yes, the pitching has been that good, starters and bullpen guys alike.
"Our bullpen has been lights out. I was really happy for Jalen Beeks. that was pretty cool that he comes back from injury and got through and inning and two-thirds and looked really, really fresh and really clean. Hi stuff was exactly like what we saw in spring training, so we're excited about that. We can be happy with how we've performed.''
Those two previous Rays teams that went 3-0 in 2002 and 2012 didn't make it to 4-0. So that's the goal for the Rays now on Monday night, when they entertain the Oakland A's in the first of four games at Tropicana Field.
The A's are 1-2 so far, getting their first win on Sunday with a 4-1 victory at Philadelphia.
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Tom Brew is the publisher of Inside The Rays, and has been with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation network for three years. He is an award-winning writer and editor who has spent most of his four-decade career at the Tampa Bay Times, Indianapolis Star and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has written four books.