BALTIMORE (AP) - Trey Mancini and Joey Rickard represent a new era for the Baltimore Orioles.
As the franchise begins its rebuilding phase, the duo showed they can help carry the lineup.
Mancini and Rickard combined for seven hits, including back-to-back home runs in the second inning, and the Orioles breezed past the Tampa Bay Rays 11-2 on Saturday night.
Mancini had a career-best four hits and his homer especially delighted the fans, who were given a bobblehead in his likeness prior to the game. Rickard got three hits and matched a career high with five RBIs.
“I’m going to tell you what, I hope they can bobble him again tomorrow,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said.
Caleb Joseph also had three hits. Mancini, Rickard and Joseph, the bottom third of the Orioles’ order, went 10 for 12 with nine RBIs.
Coming off a 15-5 romp Friday, the Orioles scored in double-digits in consecutive games for the first time since July 18-19, 2017.
Kevin Gausman (5-8) allowed two runs and nine hits over seven innings.
“Kind of hard to come by this year, but obviously the last two nights, they’ve seen the ball, swinging the bats really well,” Gausman said. “When it’s going like that, you should not be the one to mess it up.”
Kevin Kiermaier had a pair of hits, including a home run, for Tampa Bay.
“It’s been an ugly two days. It’s tough,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “We have to find a way to bounce back and get in here tomorrow and play a little bit better and our style of baseball and ultimately win a game. We win close games. We’re just not the slugfest team, and we’ve let a couple of these games get out of hand.”
Left-hander Jalen Beeks, acquired Wednesday from the Red Sox for Nathan Eovaldi, made his debut for Tampa Bay out of the bullpen and allowed eight runs and 10 hits over 3 1/3 innings.
“I have to get it in the zone more,” Beeks said. “In the end, I just didn’t get ahead of guys and put myself in bad counts.”
The Rays took a 1-0 lead on an RBI double by Jesus Sucre in the second. The Orioles answered in the bottom half when Mancini hit a two-run shot and Rickard followed with a homer off Ryne Stanek (1-3).
“The past is the past. We can’t change that at all,” Mancini said. “Our job is to come in here and try to win games and we are going to keep doing that no matter what. The last two days have been fun, we’ve had great crowds here and it’s been a good weekend so far.”
Kiermaier opened the third with a solo home run off Gausman. Baltimore responded in the fourth with a three-run double by Rickard and an RBI single by Joseph that made it 7-2.
Rickard doubled home a run in the sixth and scored on Joseph’s single.
Q&A
Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette and manager Buck Showalter met with about 200 season ticket holders prior to the game to answer questions about the franchise’s decision to trade veterans Manny Machado and Zach Britton. “It’s going to take a while, but we’ll get back to a team that we can all be proud of,” Duquette told the fans.
STREAKS
Orioles second baseman Jonathan Schoop singled in the fifth, extending his hitting streak to 11 games. He narrowly missed hitting a home run for the sixth straight game in the eighth.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Rays: LHP Blake Snell (shoulder fatigue) played catch Saturday and will likely have a bullpen session Sunday. … Cash said it will “probably be a couple more days before we start talking about a rehab” assignment for C Wilson Ramos (left hamstring strain).
UP NEXT
Rays: RHP Yonny Chirinos (0-2, 3.78 ERA), who pitched a career-high 6 2/3 innings Tuesday in a loss to the New York Yankees, gets the start as the series concludes.
Orioles: Dylan Bundy is working on short rest after he threw just 30 pitches in a rain-shortened start against the Red Sox on Wednesday. Bundy is 2-3 with a 6.00 ERA in eight appearances (seven starts) against the Rays.
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