The Tampa Bay Rays, riding high off their three-game sweep of the New York Mets this weekend, were back home Monday night as they kicked off a four-game series against the Baltimore Orioles.
The Rays have played every other AL East team at home and on the road, but this is the first meeting of the season between the Rays and the Orioles.
Ryan Pepiot started for the Rays in his 15th start of the season. Pepiot has been the Rays’ most consistent starter this season, along with Drew Rasmussen. But he has had a bit of tough luck going 6-2 with a 4.08 ERA. He leads the Rays in strikeouts with 73.
Former Ray, Zach Eflin, started for the Orioles, and he took a shot at the Rays fan base after his first start in Baltimore saying, “It was awesome. The crowd was into it. A little different than Tampa.” Eflin has been one of the bright spots for the underperforming Orioles this season, going 6-2 with a 4.08 ERA.
The Orioles had a horrific start to the season going 16-34, and find themselves trying to dig out of last place in the AL East despite winning 11 of their last 15 games.
The Rays’ offense started early as Josh Lowe led off the game with his fourth home run of the season to put the Rays up 1-0.
In the second inning, Jake Mangum singled to start the inning. After a deep fly to left by Jose Caballero, Danny Jansen singled sending Mangum to third. Christopher Morel then executed a perfect bunt single to shortstop, scoring Jansen to put the Rays up 2-0.
In the third, Yandy Diaz singled to start the inning. Jonathan Aranda walked, and then Junior Camienero grounded into a 5-4-3 double play, sending Diaz to third with two outs. Mangum would then single, scoring Diaz to put the Rays up 3-0 after three innings.
The Orioles would get on the board in the fourth as Adley Rutschman would lead off the inning with his eighth homer of the season to give the birds their first run and make it a 3-1 game. Despite getting two men on with no outs, Pepiot got Orioles first baseman Ryan O’Hearn to ground into a double play. Pepiot then struck out Ramon Urias to end the Baltimore threat.
The Rays went back to work in the fifth inning. After Eflin got the first two Tampa batters to ground out, he issued a walk to Josh Lowe, and then on the very next pitch, Brandon Lowe hit his 14th home run of the season to put the Rays up 5-1 after four innings.
The Rays would continue to add to the lead as they scored three more runs in the fifth inning to take a 7-1 lead.
That would be the final as Pepiot was razor sharp for the Rays. It was the best outing of his young career so far.
Kevin Cash talked about the strong performance after the game. “He was incredible. I mean, as good as stuff as I’ve seen him have. He’s had a lot of, you know, good, really solid outings this year, that probably tops (everything). And he really navigated his way through the lineup really well.”
Cash talked about the 11 strikeouts that Pepiot racked up against a good Orioles offense. “He struck out 10 or 11, whatever it was, you know, 100 pitches, that’s really impressive. But yeah, like I said, it was incredible.”
This was the first time in his career that Pepiot had pitched into the eighth inning. He gave up one run on four hits.
The Rays’ offense continues to get timely hitting and do whatever it takes to manufacture runs. If they need a walk, a bunt to move a runner over, or deliver a base hit this offense is getting it done. The Rays offense banged out 14 hits in their 7-1 win.
“Yeah, it feels like a pretty complete offense right now,” Cash said. “We’re doing a lot of things really well to put up runs early.”
The Rays have scored seven runs or more in four straight games, their longest streak since 2023. The Rays are now 40-32 on the season after a 9-14 start to the season and are on a mini four-game winning streak. The Rays are also a season-high eight games over .500 for the first time since the end of the 2023 season. They have also won 10 of their last 14 games at Steinbrenner Field.
The Rays and Orioles will play game two of their four-game series Tuesday night. Zack Littell will start for the Rays and Dean Kremer gets the start for the Orioles.
Other Notes
—The Rays are a MLB-best 19-6 in their last 25 games dating back to May 20th.
—The Rays’ bullpen extended their scoreless inning streak to 17.2 innings. The bullpen has a 2.04 ERA over their last 28 games dating back to May 17th.
—With a single Monday night, Yandy Diaz has an 11 game hitting streak for the Rays.
—The Rays acquired Forrest Whitley from the Astros for cash considerations. He joined the team on Monday and made his Rays debut in the ninth inning of Monday night’s win. To make room on the roster, the Rays sent Mason Englert back to Durham.
—Of the Rays’ remaining 90 games, 53 will be on the road. The Rays have played the fewest number of road games of any team in MLB so far this season. It has everything to do with playing in the Florida heat this time of the year at George Steinbrenner Field.
—The Rays lead the league in stolen bases with 97.
—The Rays’ postseason odds have increased from 11.2 percent to 55.7 percent after their three-game sweep of the Mets this past weekend.
-Joe Boyle, remember him? He made a spot start for the Rays early in the season and pitched five innings of no-hit ball against the Atlanta Braves with two walks and seven strikeouts. He has allowed three or fewer runs in all 12 of his starts at Durham. He leads the IL with a 1.53 ERA and .93 WHIP.
-Chandler Simpson is hitting .306 since his return to Durham and is 12/15 in stolen bases.