Taken by Patrick Cavey
Taken by Patrick Cavey

Losers of four straight games, the Baltimore Orioles shutout the Tampa Bay Rays 8-0 on Saturday night. The win restored the Orioles one game lead in the AL East as well as earned them the tie-breaker over the Ray, should it come down to that. The Orioles won the season series against Tampa Bay with the shutout.

Saturday’s game started and ended with Grayson Rodriguez (6-4). Baltimore’s 2018 #1 Draft pick threw 95 pitches (72 strikes) in an 8.0 inning effort that saw him allow 5 hits and strikeout 7. Six of the strikeouts saw Rays batters swing and miss. Rodriguez’s pitch mix varied from a 78.2 mph curveball to a 100.1 mph four-seam fastball; his first pitch of the game hit 99.9 mph.

Mike Baumann put the ribbon on the package with a 1 walk, 1 strike out 9th inning performance.

Gunnar Henderson should have solidified his ROY resume with a 3 for 5, 2 run scored, 3 RBI night in which he balsted his 27th homerun in the second inning, giving the Orioles a 4-0 lead at the time.

All but two Orioles had hits in the contest with Aaron Hicks going 2 for 3 with 2 runs scored and a stolen base and Ramon Urias going 2 for 4 with 1 runs scored and 1 RBI.

Adley Rutschman (1 for 3, 1 RBI, 1 BB), Ryan O’Hearn (1 for 4, 1 R, 1 RBI), Cedric Mullins (1 for 4, 1 RBI) and Adam Frazier (1 for 3, 2 R,1 RBI, 1 BB) each knocked in a run.

BOX SCORE

2023 Record: 92-56 Magic Number: 13

Next Game: Sun. 9/17 @ 1:35 pm vs. Tampa Bay Rays @ OPACY

Dean Kremer vs. Zack Littell

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