Rays Give Up Franchise-Record 22 Runs In Out-of-Character Blowout Loss to Orioles

Tampa Bay's pitching is so good that Friday night's 22-8 loss to the Baltimore Orioles seemed strangely out of character. But they owned the ''sucky'' night, and are glad ''it's just one game.''

Baltimore third baseman Ramon Urias (29) celebrates after hitting a double in the Orioles' 22-8 rout of the Tampa Bay Rays. | Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images

BALTIMORE, Md. — A slow-pitch softball game broke out at Camden Yards Friday night between the Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles. There were 31 hits, seven home runs and 11 pitchers used in the Orioles' 22-8 slugfest victory, the highest-scoring game Rays game of the year.

All that was missing for that slow-pitch vibe was the keg of beer in the dugout. That might have come in handy for the Rays.

Blowing a six-run lead was tough, as was losing the type of game they don't usually play. The recent sweep in Kansas City — where they gave up a franchise-record one run in the series sweep — is more the norm.

But, somewhat shockingly, it's the third time in nine days where they've played a game where 20 or more runs were scored. The Rays won the first two wheel-turners, though, so those were more fun. This one was far more frustration then fun.

"For the lack of a better term, it was a pretty shitty night,'' said Rays starting pitcher Ryan Pepiot, who lasted only 1 2/3 innings, the shortest start of his career. "I feel like a terrible teammate for making the bullpen have to wear all of that the rest of the game. You just have to flush this one and move on.

"I just didn't execute, and I left some balls over the plate. I'll think about this one for a while. I sat in the dugout until about the fifth inning before I came back (into the clubhouse) to do some stuff. You do that to the team, you don't just come in here and sit down. You stay out there, you watch that and you cheer on the offense for giving you a lead that you swindled. You're going to have 30-something starts and you're going to have some really good ones, and you'll have some sucky ones. This was a sucky one.''

The top of the second was a blast for the Rays. Blast times three, actually. Jonathan Aranda and Josh Lowe had solo home runs, and Brandon Lowe extended his hitting streak to 14 with a three-run homer. They were up 6-0 in a hurry, and things were looking good.

But not for long.

After the big second inning, Pepiot walked leadoff hitter Ramon Laureano to start the bottom of the inning, then gave up a double to Colton Cowser and walked Gary Sanchez to load the bases. Coby Mayo then doubled in two runs, and Ramon Urias had an RBI single to make it 6-4. After a Gunnar Henderson single, Rays manager Kevin Cash had seen enough and yanked Pepiot, who had thrown 38 pitches in the second inning alone.

"I know he wanted to stay in, but he's so important to what we're doing and what we're trying to do, so I just felt like that was enough,'' Cash said of the early hook for Pepiot. "They were pretty relentless and every guy we brought in, they had an answer for.''

They sure did. The Rays used six relievers — including shortstop Jose Caballero at the end of the rout — and every single one of them gave up runs. Once it got to 16-8, Cash took out Paul Gervase and brought in Caballero. He gave up six runs, and the 22 total tied a franchise high. It's only happened once before — on July 23, 2002 — in a 22-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox.

It was weird just watching a game like this, because the Rays have been pitching so well lately. But every pitcher got pounded, inning after inning. Baltimore scored three runs or more in five different innings.

"It was one of those days were it seemed like everything we threw, they were hitting,'' said reliever Eric Orze, who gave up three runs in two innings and took the loss. He's pitched in 27 games this season, and it was just the fourth time he'd given up any runs. "You just flush this, because we've been playing really good ball. Nothing's going to change for us because it's just one game.

"Sure, it's a tough one to swallow, but we're going to wake up (Saturday) and be professionals and get right at it. It almost doesn't seem right (watching this game) because we've all thrown the ball well for so long. With the law of averages in baseball, at some point this is bound to happen. Hopefully we got it all out in one game and we'll just leave it at that. It's just one loss. That's the beautiful thing about baseball.''

Tampa Bay allowed a franchise-record 14 extra base hits — four homers, a triple and nine doubles. It was only the second time in Pepiot's career that he had allowed more than three runs in an inning, and it was the first time in 13 starts this season, dating back to April 20, where he allowed more than three runs.

The two teams meet again on Saturday, at 4:05 p.m. ET.