Saturday night pitcher Jake Odorizzi went six strong innings striking out a season –high 9 Orioles, giving the Tampa Bay Rays their second straight solid start in Baltimore, leading the Rays to a 9-6 win. Odorizzi, who is 4-1 in his last five starts, picked up his 10th win this season. Six of Odorizzi’s strikeouts came from striking out Chris Davis, Mark Trumbo & former teammate Tim Beckham each twice. Odorizzi’s strong start was helped by a three run homerun by Lucas Duda, who connected for his 30th homer of the season off former Ray Jeremy Hellickson in the third inning. Hellickson, 0-4 in his last five starts, started against his former team for the first time.
Duda’s homerun started the scoring for the Rays & came after back to back singles by Adeiny Hechavarria & Kevin Kiermaier with two men out. The Rays added two more runs in the seventh off the Orioles bullpen after both Odorizzi & Hellickson were out of the game. And they padded their lead in the ninth when Logan Morrison hit a homerun leading off the ninth, his team-leading 37th, Brad Miller hit a ground-rule RBI double & Adeiny Hechevarria finished the scoring in the ninth with a two run scoring single for the Rays.
The Rays bullpen, which struck out seven of nine Oriole batters on Friday night, was strong through their first two innings of work but then came the bottom of the ninth & relief pitcher Chase Whitley. Whitley faced five Orioles batters & all five scored in the ninth. Relief pitcher Tommy Hunter replaced Whitley & allowed two more hits but also recorded two outs. And closer Alex Colume came on after Hunter, threw two pitches & recorded his major league leading 46th save in 52 chances.
With the win, the Rays (76-79) remained five games behind the Twins for the second AL wild card spot, with seven games remaining & guarantee themselves at least 10 more wins than last year. The final game of the four game series is on Sunday at 1:35pm, when Chris Archer (9-11 4.02) starts for the Rays vs Orioles starter Dylan Bundy (13-9 4.24). Coverage begins with Rays Radio Network Pregame Show at 1:00pm.