ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ The second-time-through-the-order bug bit Dylan Bundy once again.
The Orioles right-hander cruised through three no-hit innings Tuesday night against the Tampa Bay Rays before running into trouble in the fourth, a frame in which the Rays struck for all the runs they needed in a 4-2 victory at Tropicana Field.
The only trouble Bundy faced in the first three innings was a leadoff walk to Yandy Diaz, but he induced three straight soft flyouts to end the inning unscathed as the Orioles built a 2-0 lead against Tampa Bay right-hander Tyler Glasnow. Bundy could not dodge the same fate with Tommy Pham's walk to open the fourth. Ji-Man Choi followed with a line-drive double into right field for the Rays' first hit, and Diaz got them on the board with a sacrifice fly.
A strong change-up was enough for Bundy to record the inning's second out with a strikeout of Brandon Lowe, but Avisail Garcia sent Bundy's next pitch, an 81-mph slider that found too much of the strike zone, out to center field for a go-ahead two-run home run.
Bundy retired three of the next four batters to post perhaps his best line of the season with only three runs and three hits allowed across five innings. But the difference in his stats when opponents get another go at him remains troubling.
Bundy held the Rays hitless in eight at-bats with a walk the first time through the order; in his four starts, opponents are batting .094 against him in their first plate appearance of the game. But even a modest 2-for-7 line the second time through the order Tuesday left Bundy having allowed a .393 batting average in such situations.
In the first three innings of his starts, Bundy has a 2.25 ERA. Tuesday's rough fourth inning meant he has allowed multiple runs in the fourth inning of all four of his starts.
The Orioles wasted little time ending Glasnow's run of 16 consecutive scoreless frames, the third-longest active streak in baseball entering play Tuesday.
Trey Mancini continued his hot hitting with a single to right, and Dwight Smith Jr. followed with one of his own. After Renato Nunez was retired on an infield popup, Rio Ruiz scored Mancini with another single, marking the first time Glasnow had allowed a run since the first inning of his March 30 start against the Houston Astros.
Baltimore doubled its lead in the third after Smith reached on an infield single overturned on review, stole second and came home on Nunez's double to third base off Diaz's glove.
Jesus Sucre's one-out single in the fourth gave the Orioles seven hits from the first 17 batters they sent to the plate against Glasnow. But beginning with a Cedric Mullins double play on which Glasnow ducked under half of Mullins' broken bat, Glasnow ended his seven-inning outing retiring 10 straight Orioles.
He generated mostly soft contact in doing so, with a Sucre flyout in the seventh the only ball with an exit velocity of greater than 90 mph in that span, per Statcast data.
Rays relievers Jose Alvarado and Diego Castillo combined to set down the final six Baltimore batters as 16 straight Orioles were retired to end the game. Tampa Bay added another run on a single by Garcia off Miguel Castro in the eighth.
