ST. PETERSBURG, Florida- What happened? Ramón Urías hit a two-run home run in a three-run eighth inning to send the Orioles to a 7-5 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday night.
The Orioles took a 4-0 lead with a three-run first and Jackson Holliday’s fifth home run in the second.
Corbin Burnes allowed three runs in the fifth and Burch Smith gave up a game-tying home run in the seventh to José Caballero.
After the Orioles took a 7-4 lead, Tampa Bay scored a run off Yennier Cano in the eighth. Seranthony Dominguez pitched the ninth for the save.
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With Jordan Westburg out with a broken right hand and Coby Mayo hitless in 13 at-bats, Urías is getting more of a chance to play than he had in the season’s first four months.
“I’ve just got to compete,” he said. “It’s not like it’s given to me. I still have to perform on the field and help the team win.”
Manager Brandon Hyde decided to stick with Urías in a game that was tied.
“I love the defense, so not really a hunch, just wanted to keep him in the game,” Hyde said. “And he came through in a big way. Huge homer for us.”
The Orioles are the first team in the major leagues to win 70 games, and after the New York Yankees split their doubleheader with Texas, have a one-game lead in the American League East.
“I saw that. That’s pretty awesome,” Holliday said. “That’s the goal, to play on a winning team and to be able to come up here and do so, it’s awesome to help the team win.”
Why so much Holliday power? Holliday has hit five home runs since he was recalled on July 31st, four this week.
“I’m not trying to hit homers,” Holliday said. “I’m just trying to hit the ball hard on the barrel. When that happens, good things … obviously seem to be good outcomes. Just trying to hit the ball hard and wherever it goes, it just happens to be going over the fence at a pretty high rate right now.”
Urías has watched Holliday’s rapid ascension to the majors.
“I’m so happy for him, the improvement that he has had,” Urías said. “He’s helping the team a lot, and of course he’s good for us.”
Are the Orioles watching the scoreboard? “It’s definitely still too early,” Burnes said. “I still don’t think we’re playing our best baseball. I think that kind of showed a little bit there tonight. They came back and made that a pretty good game.
“I think we could have ran away with another one there. Before we can scoreboard watch, I think we need to take care of business and get back to playing our best baseball. I think we’re close. But I think until that happens, we need to focus internally first.”
How did Burnes throw? Burnes didn’t allow a hit in the first four innings, and then three in the fifth.
“We had a good plan, we were attacking, getting a lot of weak contact, a lot of swing-and-miss early,” Burnes said. “And then the fifth, a couple weak hits. Of the four hits, I think one ball was considered a hard-hit ball, so still did a great job of getting weak contact. They were just in places that we couldn’t get to.”
He allowed two more stolen bases. In his previous start, Burnes allowed five stolen bases.
“The minute I take too much focus away is when I break down mechanically,” Burnes said. “I start walking guys and putting more guys on base. I know that when things are kind of going right I can kind of be a little quicker and control the running game when I need to. Obviously, they’re an aggressive team and they’re going to run. Tonight, opportunities they had to run, they did just because they happened to be in counts that I was locked in on trying to get a strike and trying to get ahead of hitters.
“I think we had the pitchout on and could’ve gotten a guy at second and just didn’t get him. That’s something I’m going to see more and more of, especially when we get to postseason, so I’ve just got to do a good job of putting myself in good spots to help slow it down a little bit.”
Hyde knows teams are running on Burnes.
“We’ve just got to do a little bit better job of managing it,” he said. “People are starting to be really aggressive on him and have been. Just got to do a little bit better job holding runners.”
Elias on rotation depth: With starters Kyle Bradish, John Means and Tyler Wells out for the season, and Grayson Rodriguez on the injured list, the Orioles’ rotation depth has been taxed.
Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias was pleased the Orioles acquired starters Zach Eflin and Trevor Rogers last month at the trade deadline.
“We’re testing it the hard way, but I hope we do,” Elias said about depth. “We’ve got the five guys that are in the rotation right now. [Cade] Povich is in Norfolk. Cole Irvin is in Norfolk. Brandon Young is a guy in Norfolk on the radar screen. There are more.
“We think we do, but the way this is going, I can’t make that proclamation with any confidence because anything can happen. Getting two starting pitchers at the trade deadline was big … We not only traded for those guys at the deadline, but we traded for Corbin over the winter and without those trades, it would be really, really scary to picture where we are right now.
“We’ve got to keep the pitching coming. It takes multiple moves over a long period of time to keep a full rotation. I don’t think there’s enough starting pitching to go around baseball right now, so it’s not easy.”
Elias on signing minor league free agents: This week, the Orioles signed veteran major league infielders J.D. Davis and Jean Segura to minor league contracts.
“It’s depth, but it’s meaningful in that we might want them or need them,” Elias said. “We lost two right-handed hitters, two starting players for us in Westburg and [Jorge] Mateo, so that’s two down, and then between Joey Ortiz over the winter, Connor Norby, we needed some of these guys, too.
“So, Norfolk looks a lot different than it did a few months ago, and these vacancies have given us an opportunity to bring in some infield veterans, especially from the right side of the plate that might be able to back us up or possibly make their way up here if they’re playing well. It’s a bit of an open spot right now in those right-handed infield spots as we play and see how the guys up here are playing. It’s nice to have those guys there, and we’re watching them pretty carefully.”
What does it mean? Hyde again stayed away from Craig Kimbrel, who hasn’t recorded a save since July 6th.
“I’m just trying to get Kimbrel going,” Hyde said. “But sure you’ll see him in there tomorrow. He got in a little bit of a rough patch and I don’t want to put the pressure on him … But tomorrow I might have to. We have a lot of faith in Craig. Like I said, he should have made the All-Star team. Seranthony’s been throwing the ball great and he did again tonight.”
What’s the word? “I’m just happy for their sake we don’t see these as career-threatening or serious injuries. They need some time and some rest, but you still have to go through the rehab process.”-Elias on positive diagnoses on Orioles’ injuries.
What’s the stat of the day? 33-for-37. Opposing basestealers have been successful 33 times in 37 attempts against Burnes this season.
What’s going on in the minor leagues? Cade Povich allowed four runs on eight hits in seven innings as Triple-A Norfolk lost to Durham, 5-4, to 10 innings. Designated hitter J.D. Davis and leftfielder Shayne Fontana hit two-run home runs.
Second baseman Noelberth Romero’s two-run home run gave Double-A Bowie a 6-5 win over Harrisburg in the first game of a doubleheader. Designated hitter Connor Pavolony also hit a two-run home run. Romero’s two-run double gave the Baysox a 3-2 win in the second game.
Nick Avila (0-1) allowed three runs, two unearned in 1 1/3 innings as High-A Aberdeen lost to Hickory, 6-1, in the first game of a doubleheader. Tavian Josenberger homered as the IronBirds win the second game, 3-1, as they held Hickory to three hits.
Keeler Morfe and Yeiber Cartaya combined on a four-hit shutout, striking out 14 batters in seven innings, as Single-A Delmarva beat Salem, 5-0, in the first game of a doubleheader. Catcher Cole Urman and first baseman Stiven Acevedo homered. Jacob Cravey (0-8) allowed five runs on seven hits in 5 1/3 innings as the Shorebirds lost to Salem, 5-4, in the second game.
What’s next? The Orioles conclude their longest road trip of the season on Sunday when Albert Suárez (5-4, 3.66) faces Jeffrey Springs (0-1, 6.23) at 1:40 p.m.
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