The Rays took their hit show on the road.
Neither a change of venue nor a day off cooled the suddenly hot bats of the Rays, who crushed five home runs in rolling to an 13-6 victory over the Orioles. They have won five straight, matching a season high.
Brett Phillips and Austin Meadows each hit three-run homers in the second inning; Mike Zunino delivered a pair of two-run blasts; and Ji-Man Choi added a two-run shot in the eighth as the Rays (24-19) ran their five-game total to 44 runs. By comparison, in their previous 13 games they scored 45.
All nine hitters in the Rays lineup had hits, as they put up 15 total, two shy of their season high.
Luis Patino lasted only 3 1/3 innings in his first opportunity as a traditional starter, but relievers Andrew Kittredge and Collin McHugh teamed to work 3 2/3 innings.
After scoring 31 runs in winning their last four games at home, the Rays stayed hot, taking an early 8-0 lead.
They got six in the second — making it two of three games with a six-run inning, their second most productive of the season — on the homers by Phillips and Meadows. They sent 10 batters to the plate, with seven getting hits, chasing Orioles starter Matt Harvey, who had a dark night.
They added a pair of two-run homers from Zunino, who went deep after Joey Wendle tripled in the third and after Yandy Diaz singled in the fifth. That made a team-high 10 homers for Zunino, his most in three seasons with the Rays, and a good start toward matching or surpassing his career high of 25 with Seattle in 2017.
Choi, who made his season debut, homered in the eighth.
Patino got the chance to make a traditional start rather than working as an extended opener or in a bulk-inning relief role, but didn’t do much with it.
After four strikeouts in a relatively quick first two innings and holding an 8-0 lead, he allowed three straight hits to start the third, leading to one run. Then he made a mess in the fourth, allowing four of the first five O’s to reach, ending his night.
