Snell Strikes Out Career-High 13, Rays Blank Orioles 6-0
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Blake Snell struck out a career-high 13 in seven innings Sunday and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Baltimore Orioles 6-0 in a season wrap-up.
The Rays won their last four games to finish at 80-82, a 12-game improvement over last season.
Baltimore went 75-87, a 14-game drop from 2016. The Orioles lost 19 of their last 23, getting shut out five times.
The game drew a crowd of 16,018, bringing Tampa Bay's season attendance to 1,253,619, the lowest in the majors.
Snell (5-7) gave up two hits and walked none. The lefty struck eight of the first 12 Orioles before Trey Mancini led off the fifth with a clean single up the middle for Baltimore's first hit.
Snell went 5-1 with a 2.84 ERA over his last 10 starts after going 0-6 with a 4.98 ERA in his first 14 starts.
Curt Casali hit his first homer of the season, connecting off Kevin Gausman (11-12) in the fifth.
Consecutive hits by Corey Dickerson, Lucas Duda, Evan Longoria and Logan Morrison helped the Rays tack on five runs in the eighth off reliever Brad Brach.
Mancini's hit was his 159th of the season, the second-most by a Baltimore rookie. Eddie Murray had 173 hits in 1977.
The only other hit off Snell was Mark Trumbo's infield single in the seventh.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Orioles: Richie Bancells, head athletic trainer and a member of the Orioles organization for 41 years, announced his retirement.
Rays: OF Kevin Kiermaier, who returned from a two-day bout with the flu to have a big game Saturday night, was given the day off.
UP NEXT
In 20 weeks, pitchers and catchers will report in Sarasota for the Orioles and Port Charlotte for the Rays.
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