Chirinos never could find his tempo Sunday./JEFFREY S. KING
Monday, 4 a.m.
The Yankees? Big deal. The Rays have split 12 games with the Yankees this season?
The Astros? So what? The Rays have won four out of seven against the Astros.
The Red Sox? Who's impressed? The Rays have at least won four times against the Red Sox this year.
But the Orioles? Now, that's a baseball team.
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Cron hit two homers for the Rays./CARMEN MANDATO
Oh, I know what you're thinking. Baltimore is last by a lot in the AL East race. They're 41 1/2 games out, and heck, they're 20 games behind the Rays.
On the other hand, no one has run amok over Tampa Bay the way Baltimore did this weekend. In four games, the Orioles had 40 runs, 54 hits and 20 walks. For a weekend, they were Murderer's Row and Big Red Machine rolled into one.
Mallex Smith had a homer pop out of his glove./CARMEN MANDATO
The Orioles did it again Sunday, scoring at will in an 11-5 victory. It was the third straight game where Baltimore scored in double-digits, and it marked the fourth time in seven wins that the normally weak Orioles have scored at least 10 against Tampa Bay.
Manny Machado? Who needs him?
The Rays, who used 18 pitchers in the four-game series, struggled mightily Sunday. All four of their pitchers gave up at least two earned runs to Baltimore.
“More than anything, we’ve fallen behind a lot of hitters," Rays' manager Kevin Cash said. "We had a lot of bad counts, and they’ve capitalized on
Kittredge also gave up three runs for Rays./STEVE MUNCIE
almost every opportunity. Soft hits, hard hits, home runs, doubles, singles. Every mistake we’ve made, whether it was on the field or on the mound, they’ve capitalized. That’s why you saw a bunch of runs come across."
The Orioles, who entered the series with one of the worst offenses in baseball, had 10 home runs. Three of those came Sunday, including Jonathan Schoop's seventh home run in eight games (he was robbed in the other game). Chris Davis had two homers for Baltimore, including one that popped out of the glove of Mallex Smith as he attempted to make the catch.
For the Rays, Yonny Chirinos took the loss.
"We talk about the youth going through some of these things," Cash said. "That’s okay. It’s going to happen. I didn’t think he gave himself a chance to reset, if you will. It was like he was going through the motions.
"I don’t think he did anything proactive to getting back into the strike zone. His tempo was not what it should be. That’s something we’ll address and we’ll focus on."
C.J. Cron had two solo homers for the Rays, and Jake Bauers had one. But the Rays never had a chance to keep up with Baltimore, who scored in six of their eight at-bats.
The Rays now return home to face the Los Angeles Angels at 7:10 on Tuesday night. Tampa Bay has not announced its pitcher, but the Angels will throw Tyler Skaggs.
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