Ryan Pepiot, Rays Blow Out Orioles 7-1, Win Streak Reaches 4

TAMPA, Fla. — For the first seven weeks of the season, the Baltimore Orioles were the most disappointing team in all of baseball. They were 18 games under .500, and had a manager fired — playing some ugly baseball night after night.

They've been much better lately, winning 14 of 20, so it was imperative that the Tampa Bay Rays — who are the hottest team in the majors the past month — made a statement to open their four-game series with Baltimore at Steinbrenner Field.

It couldn't get more emphatic.

The Rays clobbered former teammate Zach Eflin and the Orioles, scoring in each of the first five innings and cruising to an easy 7-1 victory. It was their fourth straight win, and they've scored seven or more each time.

Toss in more brilliant pitching — starter Ryan Pepiot went eight innings and allowed only a solo home run by Adley Rutschman — and it was a first-night beatdown for the Rays, who are now 19-6 since May 20, with a stunning plus-78 run differential during the hot streak. They are 40-32 now, and eight games over .500 for the first time since the end of the 2023 season.

"It's been fun watching these guys swing the bats, from top to bottom in the lineup,'' Pepiot said of the Rays offense, which had 14 hits, including homers by Josh Lowe and Brandon Lowe. They've scored 31 runs since Friday during the winning streak. "It's somebody new every night. Guys are spraying the ball all over the yard, so it makes it easy to just go out there and attack the zone and just fill it up.''

Pepiot (4-6) hasn't gotten a lot of run support all year, but that wasn't an issue on Monday. Leadoff hitter Josh Lowe homered in the first inning to put the Rays out front, a 334-foot ''shot'' over the short porch in right field. It was his fourth homer of the year.

"I think that's the luxury of playing at Steinbrenner right there with that one,'' Lowe said with a smile postgame in the Rays' clubhouse. It would not have been a homer in any other MLB park, including Yankee Stadium. "It's contagious, really. Every single night with good teams, it's everybody getting hot and guys wanting to rush to the bat rack to hit. It's one through nine, not just one guy.''

The Rays added another run in the second. Outfielder Jake Mangum, who had three hits on the night, beat out an infield to open the inning, and Danny Jansen had a one-out single, sending Mangum to third. No. 9 hitter Christopher Morel then laid down a perfect bunt that Eflin couldn't reach, and Mangum scored easily.

Yandy Diaz opened the third inning with a walk, and Jonathan Aranda walked. Junior Caminero hit into a double play, but Diaz went to third and scored on another Mangum infield single. They added two more in the fifth, thanks to a Josh Lowe walk and a Brandon Lowe homer deep to right-center that would have been a homer in 29 of 30 parks, all but Coors Field in Denver. That made it 5-1, and Mangum had a two-run double in the fifth to close out the scoring.

The Rays had 12 hits off of Eflin, who played for the Rays in 2023 and part of 2024. That's the most hits at home against a starting pitcher since 2017. That was more than enough for Pepiot, of course.

The eight innings pitched was a career high, and he did it with just 98 pitches. His fastball up in the zone was untouchable and his changeup and slider had Baltimore hitters off balance all night. He had 11 strikeouts, one off his career high. Newcomer Forrest Whitley pitched a perfect ninth in his first appearance with the Rays.

"He was incredible tonight,'' Rays manager Kevin Cash said of Pepiot. ''That's as good of stuff as he's had, and he's had a lot of really solid outings this year. That one probably topped it. The depth that he was creating on the changeup made his fastball look 4 miles an hour faster, or it felt like it from the side. That offense over there can really put some runs on the board, but he did a great job of navigating through their lineup right there.

"He struck out 11 underneath 100 pitches, so that's really impressive.''

With the Yankees losing their fourth straight game — falling 1-0 in 11 innings at home against the Los Angeles Angels, the Rays are now just 2.5 games out of first place in the American League East. They are also three games up in the AL wild-card race, and look very much like a serious playoff contender.

The two teams get together again Tuesday night, with Zack Littell taking on Dean Kremer. The game starts at 7:35 p.m. ET