ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — After losing two of three over the weekend in Minnesota, and
Having the Orioles in the opposing dugout helped.
The Rays beat Baltimore for the 12th time in 13 games, and they had a blast in posting the 9-2 final score. Five, actually tying their season high for homers in a game.
Brandon Lowe hit a pair, extending his team-high total to 28. Kevin Kiermaier, who had an inside-the-park homer on Friday, hit one over the wall. So did Mike Brosseau, his first since May 19, having spent much of that time in Triple-A.
And Brett Phillips, who hit three grand slams in a recent 14-day period, delivered his own inside-the-parker after lining a ball off the left-centerfield wall, and made a point of noting it after he slid headfirst across the plate.
The resuscitation of the offense after scoring four runs total over the last two games wasn’t all the Rays had to be happy about.
Collin McHugh worked two more perfect innings as the opener, then Josh Fleming made good on his promise to make amends for his rough Wednesday outing in Boston, when he allowed 10 runs on 11 hits in 3 1/3 innings.
Fleming worked 5 2/3 innings Monday, allowing two runs on six hits, though he did need 102 pitches to do so. Louis Head finished for a bullpen that now will be without Matt Wisler for at least 10 days.
The win improved the Rays’ American League-best record to 72-47 and extended their East division lead to 3 ½ games over the idle Red Sox.
The only downer on the night?
The announced “crowd” of 5,460 was smallest ever in 24 seasons for a Rays game at Tropicana Field without COVID-19-related restrictions on capacity. The smallest was 5,786 on May 28, 2019; they had 5,855 on Aug. 2 this year.
The Orioles, who lost their 12th straight overall, actually took a 1-0 lead off Fleming in the third. But the Rays, hitless through three innings against Baltimore starter Matt Harvey, came out swinging in the fourth. After Ji-Man Choi walked, Manuel Margot singled and Austin Meadows tripled.
That positioned the Rays for their majors-leading 37th come-from-behind win, and they kept adding on.
Kiermaier opened the fifth with a homer, and an out later Lowe hit his first. Joey Wendle doubled in Choi to make it 5-1.
The Rays got three more in the sixth. Phillips, whose three grand slams in 19 plate appearances were the second fewest in big-league history, laced a ball to left-center and turned on the jets to race all the way home.
Brosseau homered in the seventh to cap the big night.
