The Orioles Fall Short in Another Comeback Chance (7/27/22)

On Wednesday, July 27th, the Baltimore Orioles and the Tampa Bay Rays played game 3 of their 4-game series.

After Tuesday’s impressive win, the Orioles’ bullpen stayed on fire as they pitched 3 scoreless innings at the end of the game while the defense also picked up some slack and made plays to help with that.

The starting lineup for the O’s:

1. C. Mullins CF, 2. A.  Rutschman C, 3. T. Mancini DH, 4. A. Santander RF, 5. R. Mountcastle 1B, 6. A. Hays LF, 7. R. Odor 2B, 8. R. Urias 3B, 9. J. Mateo SS

The starting pitcher of the game for the Orioles was Tyler Wells (7-6, 3.69 ERA, 63 K).

The Starting lineup for the Rays:

1. Y. Diaz 3B, 2. B. Lowe 2B, 3. R. Arozarena LF, 4. J. Choi DH, 5. I. Paredes 1B, 6. L. Raley RF, 7. C. Bethancourt C, 8. J. Lowe CF, 9. T. Walls SS

The starter for the Rays was Drew Rasmussen (6-3, 3.13 ERA, 66K)

To kick off the top of the first inning, the Rays came out swinging. They got the lead first for the first time in this series with a Ji-Man Choi 2-run 400-foot home run.

At the beginning of the second inning, the Rays added on to their lead as Luke Raley hit a 405-foot home run to give the Rays an early 3-0 lead.

In the top of the second, the O’s put a run on the board after Rougned Odor’s single to send Anthony Santander home.

After a good defensive half inning by the O’s, a wild pitch sent Adley Rutschman home for the Orioles to cut the lead in half to 3-2.

In the fifth inning, Tyler Wells was taken out of the game due to a lower-back injury. He had 5 strikeouts and allowed 3 earned runs with a 3.80 ERA at the end. He was replaced by Dillon Tate (2.35 ERA).

Yandy Diaz quickly slapped an RBI double against Tate to extend the Rays lead once again back to two runs as they led 4-2.

Trey Mancini snapped his 0-26 cold streak with a single that led to Adley Rustchman scoring from second.

Drew Rasmussen got taken out after hitting Santander. He struck out 4 and let up 3 runs, having a 3.17 ERA afterward. Ryan Thompson (4.01 ERA) came in to replace him and got the Rays out of the inning.

Nick Vespi relieved Dillon Tate in the sixth. Tate had 3 strikeouts, leaving his ERA at 2.28.

Brooks Raley (1-1, 2.90 ERA) came in during the Seventh inning to relieve Thompson. Thompson had 1 strikeout and a 3.86 ERA. Jason Adam (1.41 ERA) replaced Raley after 7 pitches.

Felix Bautista (1.59 ERA) came in for the Orioles to start the 8th inning. Vespi had 2 strikeouts in 1.1 innings.

Keegan Akin (2.44 ERA) was put in to replace Bautista. Akin also pitched the night before.

Colin Poche (3.31 ERA) came in for the Rays and ended up blowing the save as Jorge Mateo hit a 398-foot home run to complete the comeback for the O’s and take the game into extra innings.

Jorge Lopez (1.55 ERA) came in for the Orioles to try to stop the Rays from scoring.

The Rays’ outfielder, Randy Arozarena, hit a 2-run double and gave the Rays the 6-4 lead at the top of the tenth inning. Lopez was able to get the O’s out of the inning after allowing the bases to be loaded.

The Rays brought in Pete Fairbanks (9.00 ERA) to close out the game and he did just that as the O’s fell short after coming back to tie in back-to-back games.

The Orioles will look to win the series against Tampa Bay during the final game at Camden Yards on July 28th at 12:35 PM EST.