Orioles' Bundy Loses 1st Big League Start, 5-2 To Rays
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- It's only one win, but they've been hard enough to come by for the Tampa Bay Rays in the past month.
So much so, in fact, that Evan Longoria took whatever positive momentum he can find following Sunday's 4-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles.
"The win today, hopefully we can carry that momentum on the road with us," said Longoria, who hit two of the Rays' four home runs as they snapped an eight-game losing streak. "It felt like the two days prior to today we played well and our pitching staff went out and set the tempo and got us off on the right track for the second half."
The Rays (35-56) avoided a sweep and picked up just their fourth win in 28 contests, after the worst 27-game stretch by any American League team since 2003.
Jake Odorizzi (4-5), mentioned as a trade target as the deadline approaches, won for the first time in seven starts.
"Just a good start to the second half, and keep going from here," Odorizzi said. "Everything felt good today. ... Just felt like me again today."
Baltimore (53-37) had won six of seven overall and seven straight against the Rays, but went into the contest with just a two-game lead on Boston atop the American League East.
"It's more about us not scoring any runs today," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. "We had a couple of opportunities that we should have cashed in on and we didn't. Odorizzi was good."
Longoria, who was passed over for the All-Star Game, hit his 20th and 21st home runs, extending both his team lead and his club record with 17 career multi-homer games. The Rays had only six hits on the day, but four of them left the park.
Baltimore right-hander Dylan Bundy (2-2), a former first-round pick making his first career start at 23, gave up four runs on three home runs and lasting 3 1/3 innings before leaving after 70 pitches. Bundy had allowed three home runs in 39 2/3 career innings of relief before Sunday's start.
"The Rays were aggressive, and they were able to get on the fastball pretty well," Bundy said. "I've got to work on the movement of it and get the two-seamer over the plate and keep the ball down in the zone."
Odorizzi gave up a single and double in his first three pitches, but limited the damage to one run on a Manny Machado sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead.
The Rays tied the game on Longoria's 20th home run of the season in the first, then took a 3-1 lead in the second on Oswaldo Arcia's sixth of the year. Brad Miller's solo home run in the third made it 4-1 with his 15th home run of the season. He has already tied the Rays' second record for a shortstop, set by Julio Lugo in 2003 and Asdrubal Cabrera last season.
Odorizzi had his best outing in a month, holding the Orioles to two runs in his six innings. He pitched himself out of jams -- in the fifth, Joey Rickard and Caleb Joseph singled to lead off the inning and advanced on a wild pitch, but Odorizzi struck out Jonathan Schoop and got Chris Davis to pop out to center to finish the inning. Pedro Alvarez hit a solo home run in the sixth -- his 11th of the season -- to cut the lead to 4-2.
Longoria added a solo shot in the eighth off reliever Odrisamer Despaigne, and the Rays got stellar relief from the bullpen. Erasmo Ramirez struck out four in two perfect innings, and closer Alex Colome worked a scoreless ninth for his 20th save and his first since June 14. In all, Rays pitchers combined for 14 strikeouts.
