ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Gunnar Henderson and Ryan O’Hearn homered as the AL East-leading Baltimore Orioles beat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-3 on Sunday to take three of four in a weekend series.
The Orioles, who started July 6 1/2 games behind Tampa Bay, have a two-game lead over the Rays after winning for the 12th time in 15 games.
“We just played four really good games against a really good team,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “Really proud of all of our guys. We did a lot things well this series. Hopefully we can keep it rolling.”
Reliever Mike Baumann (7-0) walked two over 2 2/3 hitless innings and Félix Bautista gave up ninth-inning singles to Manuel Margot and Yandy Díaz before getting to his 28th save as four Baltimore pitchers combined on a three-hitter. Baltimore pitchers walked six and hit two batters.
Bautista ended it by striking out Wander Franco with runners on first and third.
“For some of the guys that don’t have playoff experience like myself, it felt like a playoff game,” Henderson said. “Really getting a sense for what it feels like. It’s going to help us down the road.”
Díaz homered for the Rays, who are an AL-worse 4-14 in July. This the first time Tampa Bay has lost a home series to the Orioles since June 2017.
O’Hearn put the Orioles up 4-3 on a 331-foot opposite-field homer down the left-field line off Colin Poche (7-3) in the sixth. He had a tiebreaking pinch-hit ninth-inning RBI single in the Orioles’ 6-5 win on Saturday.
Baltimore took a 5-3 lead on Anthony Santander’s RBI single during the seventh.
Díaz tied it at 3 with the Rays’ first hit off a wild Tyler Wells, a two-run homer following a leadoff walk to Christian Bethancourt in the fifth. Wells was replaced by Baumann after retiring the next batter, Franco.
“Ideally this offense is too good to go that quiet for so long.,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Yandy picked us up but I like to think that we can have some better at-bats collectively to put a little bit more pressure on the pitchers.”
Wells ended up allowing three runs, one hit, four walks, hit two batters and struck out five in 4 1/3 innings. The right-hander had issued just 26 walks and hit one batter over 106 2/3 innings entering the game.
“That’s what our team is about, picking each other up,” Wells said. “That’s a big reason why we’re in first place right now.”
Adley Rutschman had a first-inning RBI double before Henderson made it 3-0 with his two-run 446-foot drive in the second.
The Rays got within 3-1 in the fourth on a pair of walks and a run-scoring fielder’s choice grounder by Brandon Lowe.
DICKIE V IN THE HOUSE
College basketball icon and Rays’ fan Dick Vitale was at the game, one day before starting six weeks of radiation treatments for vocal cord cancer.
MOVING DAY
Rays RHP Yonny Chirinos was claimed on waivers by Atlanta, He went 4-4 with a 4.02 ERA in 15 games.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Orioles: RHP Austin Voth (right elbow) allowed one run, on a homer, and two hits over two innings for Double-A Bowie against Harrisburg.
Rays: 3B Isaac Paredes stayed in the game after a 91.5 mph pitch from Wells in the second grazed the top of his helmet. … LHP Josh Fleming (left elbow) will have his status evaluated after making starts Thursday and Aug. 1 with Triple-A Durham. … RHP Andrew Kittredge (Tommy John surgery) allowed six runs and seven hits in one-third of an inning for Triple-A Durham against Rochester.
UP NEXT
Orioles: RHP Dean Kremer (10-4) looks to become the AL’s fourth 11-game winner Monday night against Philadelphia LHP Cristopher Sánchez (0-3). Tampa Bay’s Shane McClanahan and Zach Eflin, and Texas’ Nathan Eovaldi top the league with 11 victories.
Rays: RHP Tyler Glasnow (3-3) will go against Miami RHP Edward Cabrera (5-5) on Tuesday night.
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