Rays Look to Bounce Back Against Orioles on Wednesday

The Tampa Bay Rays will look to bounce back against the Baltimore Orioles in Wednesday night’s game after losing the first two games of the series. With those losses, the Rays are now third in the AL East, while the Orioles move up to fourth.

Tuesday Night in Review

Following an incredible start by Tampa Bay All-Star Shane McClanahan, the Orioles managed to come back and gain a 5-3 victory over the Rays on Tuesday night. After seven innings and 81 pitches of absolute domination by McClanahan, he came out of the game. Baltimore quickly took the lead in the eighth as Ramón Urías hit a two-run homer off reliever Colin Poche, pushing the Orioles to victory.

McClanahan took the mound for the first time since pitching an inning for the AL All-Stars on July 19. The 25-year-old lefty struck out seven and walked just one. The All-Star kept the Orioles quiet. The extent of Baltimore’s offense against McClanahan included his first pitch of the game being hit for a home run by Cedric Mullins as well as Anthony Santander going deep in the fourth.

1 pitch. 1-0. 💪 pic.twitter.com/zM4J1yrFPS

— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) July 26, 2022

Mullin’s homer gave the Orioles an early 1-0 lead. Baltimore’s Ryan Mountcastle attempted to hit the second homer of the night when Tampa’s Luke Raley played perfect defense with an impressive catch bringing the ball back into the park. Aside from the 106.4 mph dinger off the bat of Santander and a second-inning walk to Adley Rutschman, McClanahan put up an impeccable performance for the Rays.

Rays in the Third

On the mound for the Orioles was Spenser Watkins. Watkins, not nearly as decorated as McClanahan, pitched through the sixth and managed to give his team a chance to come back. Watkins worked around singles in the first and second, but three singles in the third allowed the Rays to break through. The third single smacked off the bat of outfielder Randy Arozarena, allowing Yu Chang to score and Brandon Lowe to reach third. As Chang scored, Santander tried to throw out Lowe getting to third. Lowe was safe, but Urías fired back to second to get Arozarena out.

Following, Isaac Paredes hit his 14th home run, giving the Rays the lead.

💥 Paredes Power 💥 pic.twitter.com/LCS5EpwT75

— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) July 27, 2022

Then a few batters later, another run was scored by L. Raley on an RBI double off the bat of Roman Quinn. Tampa extended its advantage to 3-2.

Orioles Claw Back

After another inning and a third, Joey Krehbiel came in for relief for Baltimore. Krehbiel threw 2.1 innings with just one hit and one walk.

After seven innings of lost hope for Baltimore, McClanahan left the mound and in came Poche. After a Rutschman single, Urías came up hot at the plate. Urías pushed the Orioles to a 4-3 lead with his game-changing two-run homer.

RAMÓN URÍAS CANNOT BE CONTAINED!! pic.twitter.com/GNMdCokbxe

— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) July 27, 2022

The Orioles’ offense didn’t stop there as they continued to add on an insurance run. Jorge Mateo shot a double down the left field line and stole third base. Then, Trey Mancini hit a ball to deep right-center field, allowing Mateo to score the insurance run. Jorge López gave up a leadoff infield hit before inducing three groundouts and shutting it down.

Baltimore took a 5-3 victory over the Rays.

Rays vs. Orioles Game 3

The Orioles will play host as they face the Rays for the third of their four-game series from Oriole Park on Wednesday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. You can catch coverage here scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

The season series is currently tied 7-7 and the Rays must win the final two outings in order to salvage a split. Tampa Bay has lost four straight games overall. The Orioles outscored the Rays 10-4 combined on Monday and Tuesday. Baltimore has now posted four or more runs in 10 of its last 11 games.

The projected starters for Wednesday night are Tampa’s right-handed pitcher Drew Rasmussen and Baltimore’s right-handed pitcher Tyler Wells. Rasmussen (6-3, 3.13 ERA) will make his 17th start. He has a 1.19 WHIP, 2.5 BB/9 and 7.6 K/9 through 77 2/3 IP. While, Wells will make his 20th start. He has a 1.10 WHIP, 2.3 BB/9 and 6.3 K/9 through 90 1/3 IP.

Tampa Bay has won just three of their last nine against the Orioles. However, the Orioles will surely be challenged with Wells on the bump. Two of the last three wins for Tampa Bay against Baltimore were by just one run, so this game is expected to be a close one.