Baltimore Orioles: The Comeback Kids get a win against Rays (7/26/22)

The Orioles got a late-inning win over the Rays Tuesday.

The Baltimore Orioles walked into Camden Yards up in the series 1-0 against the Tampa Bay Rays with the O’s still on their high horse after a 5-1 win on Monday.

Spenser Watkins started the game for the Orioles. Going into the game he was 3-1 with a 3.93 ERA and pitched a phenomenal first inning to start the game.

With Shane McClanahan‘s first pitch, Cedric Mullins blasted a 368-foot home run to jump-start the Orioles to a 1-0 lead.

The second inning was quiet for both teams before the Rays tied the game up on an RBI single from Randy Arozarena.  The Rays then padded up their lead to 3-1 in the 4th inning with a solo shot from Isaac Paredes, and an RBI double from Roman Quinn.

The Orioles however quickly answered back with a 399-foot home run from Anthony Santander to cut down the Rays lead in half.

After 5.1 innings allowing 10 hits, 1 home run, and having 4 strikeouts with a 4.03 ERA, Watkins was relieved by Joey Krehbiel, who entered the game with a 2.62 ERA.  This is where the Orioles bullpen proved themselves yet again and showed why they are among the top 5 bullpens in ERA in the MLB.

Keegin Akin came in relief for Krehbiel and got the O’s out of the top of the 8th inning.

The 8th inning is when the comeback kids showed up and took the Rays by storm.  After an Adley Rutschman single, one of the Orioles’ best hitters in Ramon Urias came up to bat and went YARD with a 424-foot two-run home run to give the O’s a 4-3 lead. That lead was extended by one run after Trey Mancini‘s sac-fly to give the O’s a 2-run cushion to go into the 9th.

Jorge Lopez came in for the save for the O’s as they completed the late-game comeback to top the Rays for the second game in a row, putting up 5 runs in both games.  Akin was awarded the win moving his record to 2-1, and Lopez secured his 19th save.

The Orioles take on the Rays at home again tomorrow night, Wednesday, July 27th at 7:05 PM.