Friday, 4 a.m.
It ended with heat. It ended with fire.
It ended with Pete Fairbanks on the mound, daring the Orioles to hit his fastball. It ended with swings and misses. It ended in domination.
There in the ninth inning, with first place in the air, there was no deceit, no nibbling around the corners. This was a man and his fastball, overpowering a very good Baltimore lineup.
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Fairbanks struck out the side in the ninth inning Friday, preserving the Rays’ 4-3 victory over Baltimore. His three pitches to Ryan O’Hearn — and his last four in all — were all clocked a 100 miles an hour.
It was a terrific night for the Rays’ bullpen, who threw four innings of no-hit, no run baseball. The foursome — Colin Poche, Shawn Armstrong, Robert Stephenson and Fairbanks — struck out seven.
It was a victory that closed the gap in the AL East to one game. The teams play the next three days.
The Rays are trying to overtake the Orioles, who have held first place for 52 days.
They took a step in the right direction on a seventh-inning home run by Luke Raley. Raley has 19 home runs on the season, but he had only three in his previous 58 games.
The Rays had earlier taken a three-run lead, two of the runs coming on Randy Arozarena’s triple.
Tampa Bay and Baltimore play again tonight at 7:40 p.m. Zach Eflin will start for the Rays against Jack Flaherty.