Thursday, 4 a.m.
The situation wasn’t just dire. It was ridiculous.
The Rays were being thrashed. It was 8-0, two innings into the game, and the Baltimore Orioles were hitting the baseball into the street. Taj Bradley had been chased from the game only four outs into it. It was turning into one of those games you turn off and forget about it.
And then the Rays came back, and came back, and came back again. In the end, they would win 12-8, and if the game had gone any longer, they might have scored 20. They had 18 hits and five walks.
Ir was the largest comeback in the majors this year and matched a franchise record.
In their comeback, the Rays scored three runs in the third and four in the fifth and seventh.
Before Thursday, their largest comeback had been from five runs down.
— Junior Caminero went four-for-five on the day with two RBI.
— Jonathan Aranda went three-for-five with two RBI.
— Brandon Lowe had two hits off the bench, including a two-run homer to tie the game at eight.
—Curtis Mead, Christopher Morel and Yandy Diaz all had two hits.
— Bradley was roughed up, giving up six earned runs in his inning and a third. But the bullpen went 7 2/3 innings and gave up just one hit and one run.
— The Rays had hits in nine of its 13 opportunities with men on base.
The Rays have now scored 44 runs in their last six games, five of them resulting in victories. They’ve totaled 73 hits.
The Rays are now 41-33 on the season and are just a game and a half behind the New York Yankees. They’re 27-16 since the start of May.
The Rays play Baltimore at Steinbrenner Field at 7:05 p.m. Drew Rasmussen will start for the Rays against Charlie Morton.