SARASOTA (WDAE) -- Charlie Morton pitched shutout baseball into the third inning, and Michael Perez and Ji-Man Choi each homered, though the Tampa Bay Rays could manage just a 3-3 tie with the Baltimore Orioles Monday at Ed Smith Stadium.
Morton, making his second Grapefruit League start of 2020, needed just seven pitches to get through the first three batters of the game, and needed just 28 pitches to face the entire Baltimore order once. He allowed a pair of hits, and did not walk or strike out a hitter.
Perez, who hit a massive three-run homer the last time the Rays came to Sarasota, got the scoring started with a solo homer to left, his second of the spring.
Baltimore took the lead in the bottom of the fourth on a two-run homer by Renato Nunez off Jalen Beeks.
The game remained 2-1 until the sixth, when Hunter Renfroe reached on a base hit and Ji-Man Choi followed with an opposite-field home run of his own, giving the Rays a 3-2 lead.
But Baltimore got the game tied up in the bottom of the sixth when Yusniel Diaz tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Chris Davis off Aaron Loup.
Tampa Bay got scoreless innings of relief from Oliver Drake, Sam McWilliams, Pete Fairbanks, and Sean Gilmartin.
The Rays head to North Port to face off with the Atlanta Braves. Minor-leaguer Josh Fleming will get the start, with first pitch from CoolToday Park set for 1:05.