Rays Go Flat Again, Fall to Orioles 2-1 in Sunday Series Finale

Tampa Bay finished a brutal road trip with another frustrating day at the plate, losing 2-1 to the Baltimore Orioles and ending their trip through Minnesota, New York and Baltimore with just a 2-7 record. They get to go home now, where the Yankees are waiting for them again, starting a three-game series on Monday night.

BALTIMORE, Md. — Ten men left on base. Just one hit with runners in scoring position. And yet another runner thrown out on the base paths. 

It's tough to win ballgames that way, and the struggling Tampa Bay Rays know that all too well. They lost to the Baltimore Orioles 2-1 on Sunday, losing the series and finishing their worst road trip of the season with just a 2-7 record, wasting another solid pitching performance by Corey Kluber

The only encouraging news? They get to go home. 

"It's been a frustrating road trip. We have to get back home and find some kind of rhythm,'' Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "Klubs was so good again for us, and it's irritating and frustrating all at the same time to not help him out a little bit. We swung the bats OK, but you've got to piece together some bigger innings than what we're doing here of late.''

The Rays had plenty of chances, but just couldn't push enough runs across. Down 1-0 after an Anthony Santander first-inning home run, Tampa Bay got things going in the second inning. Brett Phillips singled with two outs, and then Vidal Brujan hit a double into the corner in right field that was quickly fielded by Ryan McKenna.

The speedy Phillips went flying around the bases, but the relay throw by second baseman Rougned Odor was perfect, as was the tag by rookie catcher Adley Rutschman, and Phillips was called out on the bang-bang play.

"I saw just a tremendous relay on their part,'' Cash said. "McKenna got to it quick, Odor made a quick exchange and a perfect throw to Rutschman. It took a perfect throw and a perfect tag, and that's what took place.''

The Rays also threatened in the third after two were out, getting three straight walks to load the bases. But Randy Arozarena struck out to end the inning, getting overpowered with a fastball.

Baltimore made it 2-0 in the second inning, with McKenna getting on with an infield single and then scoring on a double deep into the gap in left-center by Cedric Mullins.

The Rays cut the lead to 2-1 in the fourth when Francisco Mejia singled to lead off the inning and scored on a double by Taylor Walls in the gap. Walls was at third after a bobble in the outfield, but Kevin Kiermaier, who had two hits on the day, struck out to end the threat.

In the sixth, it looked like the Rays were going to at least tie it up, too. Phillips and Brujan had back-to-back two-out singles, and then Walls hit a slow roller to second that looked like a sure hit. But Odor made a spectacular off-balance throw to barely get Walls.

Stellar play from Rougned Odor! pic.twitter.com/B0vPMHNrz1

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) June 19, 2022

"Sometimes it's just how the game is,'' Walls said. "I have no clue how he got it to first base. I thought once it got past the pitcher, that was a for sure chance that I was going to be a hit there. It had to be an incredible play. That was a big-time play by him and that was a big situation in the game. It ties the game up and rolls the lineup over and puts some pressure on them. They played great defense. We had some opportunities, but we couldn't make anything of it.'' 

The Orioles, who had a bullpen day when starter Jordan Lyles couldn't go because of a stomach virus, kept getting the big outs. The Rays had runners late too — Harold Ramirez led off the eighth with a single and Kiermaier had a single in the ninth — by they couldn't get it down. 

They are 1-5 in their last six games, and outside of Saturday's 7-6 win, they've been struggling at the plate. They scored only five total runs in the losses. They are 36-30 now, going from 11 games over .500 to just six during the 10-day road trip to Minnesota, New York and Baltimore. The last time they were only six games over .500 was May 16, when they were 21-15. 

"Hopefully, getting home helps. We're too good of a team to keep having results like this,'' Walls said. "We'll turn it around. We're a good ball team and every in here knows that. It shouldn't be long.''

The most frustrating part of the hitting woes Sunday was that it was the key guys who had chances but couldn't get it done. The guys at the bottom of the order with their sub-.200 averages had good days. Phillips and Brujan both and two hits, and Walls had that RBI double as well.

But leading hitter Manuel Margot was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, and he grounded out meekly to the pitcher to end the game. Yandy Diaz was 0-for-3, and Ji-Man Choi 0-for 2, though he did walk to keep on-base streak alive at 18, a career high. Arozarena was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, too.

Phillips said the Rays are glad to be getting on a plane and going home. It's been a frustrating week and a half on the road, losing all three series and getting swept in New York. And they've now lost back-to-back series here to the last-place Orioles, something that hasn't happened since 2017.

"I think the feeling is we're looking forward to getting back home to the Trop in front of our home fans and try to change things around,'' he said. "The is the big leagues, and everybody is going to bring their best, especially against us. We got their best this weekend.

"I know we're excited to put this behind us and get moving forward. I think the glass is half full. It was encouraging that we were able to string together some hits and get runners on, but now we have to build off of that.''

The Rays and Yankees start a three-game series on Monday night with a terrific pitching matchup between Shane McClanahan and Gerrit Cole.