Jordan Lyles prides himself on pitching deep into video games to choose up the Orioles and their bullpen. In Sunday’s first-half finale at Tropicana Field, his teammates couldn’t utterly return the favor after his shortest begin with Baltimore.
The Tampa Bay Rays knocked out Lyles within the third inning, scoring in every of his frames to construct a six-run lead in what ended as a 7-5 loss for the Orioles, their seventeenth defeat of their previous 19 video games in St. Petersburg. Baltimore has dropped 14 straight highway sequence in opposition to the Rays, a drought courting to June 2017.
Sunday’s defeat value the Orioles (46-46) a profitable first half, although being .500 on the All-Star break is actually an accomplishment given how they have been anticipated to carry out coming into the fourth full season of their rebuild.
Of their closing 72 video games, 39 come in opposition to different groups within the American League East, with the entire Rays, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays in playoff competition. The Orioles are 3 1/2 video games behind Toronto for the AL’s third wild-card spot.
The most veteran member of Baltimore’s pitching employees, Lyles has little expertise in a pennant race over his decade within the majors. With the Orioles utilizing latest off days to present him an additional begin earlier than the break, Lyles put them in a gap early. After hitting Harold Ramírez with a pitch that broke his proper thumb, Lyles allowed a house run to Randy Arozarena, his thirteenth in 30 profession video games in opposition to Baltimore. A stroll to Brett Phillips, who entered play with one hit in his earlier 34 at-bats, to start the second turned a run when Josh Lowe doubled him dwelling with two outs.
Arozarena led off the third with a single, getting thrown out at dwelling with no outs on a double from Brandon Lowe, a Maryland product. But that free out did little to assist Lyles, who after a two-out stroll surrendered a three-run dwelling run to Phillips, his first lengthy ball since May 17.
It marked Lyles’ shortest outing in 47 appearances and the primary time he didn’t pitch into the fifth in 19 begins for Baltimore. His 107 2/3 innings are over 11 greater than another Oriole has had within the first half throughout supervisor Brandon Hyde’s four-season tenure.
The Orioles chipped at Tampa Bays’ lead, getting RBI singles from Adley Rutschman and Ramón Urías within the fourth solely to go away the bases loaded regardless of two at-bats in that state of affairs. Rougned Odor’s two-run dwelling run within the sixth acquired the Orioles inside two, although Francisco Mejía homered on Keegan Akin’s first pitch of the underside half.
Austin Hays did the identical with Pete Fairbanks’ opening providing of the eighth, however after Rutschman adopted with a double, the underside three hitters in Baltimore’s order stranded him at second.
Baker’s dozen
Behind Lyles, right-hander Bryan Baker stabilized the sport with probably the most spectacular reduction outings an Oriole has supplied in recent times.
Baker struck out all 5 batters he confronted, turning into the primary Baltimore pitcher to face a minimum of 5 batters and retire all of them since pitch monitoring started in 2008. After Phillips’ homer, Baker punched out Mejía on six pitches, threw 15 to strike out the facet within the fourth, then puntuated his outing his a three-pitch strikeout of Arozarena to start out the fifth earlier than giving strategy to Akin.
In Baker’s dozen outings since his ERA rose to six.00 on June 12, he has allowed two runs in 15 2/3 innings for a 1.15 ERA whereas placing out greater than a 3rd of the batters he’s confronted.
Bautista coping with hand harm
Félix Bautista, the Orioles’ prime right-handed setup man, didn’t pitch Saturday’s extra-innings victory due to a proper hand harm suffered earlier than the sport.
He mentioned the hook of the train bands he was utilizing to stretch snapped off the fence it was linked to and whacked him in his pitching hand. He was not sure he could be obtainable to pitch in Sunday’s recreation, however he warmed up within the prime of the eighth, solely to return to the Orioles’ dugout after doing so as an alternative of staying with different relievers in Baltimore’s bullpen.
YANKEES@ORIOLES
Friday, 7:05 p.m.
TV: MASN
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
()
Source: www.bostonherald.com