BALTIMORE _ The first game of the Rays day-night doubleheader with the Orioles was a frustrating one, a 2-1 loss as their bats were stunningly quiet and rookie reliever Colin Poche gave up a two-run homer in the seventh.
Then they took out their frustrations in the nightcap, hitting six homers in rolling to a 12-4 win.
By the end of the long day, they were 54-40 and had moved to within six games of the AL East leading Yankees, who lost to Toronto.
Rookies Mike Brosseau and Nate Lowe both went deep twice in the nightcap, while Yandy Diaz, and Tommy Pham also homered.
But the tangible work by Charlie Morton on the mound, and the intangible confidence the Rays drew from having him there was also key.
Held to three hits in the matinee and facing O's All-Star John Means in the nightcap didn't bode well.
But the Rays stuck early. Avasail Garcia doubled with one out in the second, then Brosseau, playing in his 11th big-league game, hit a two-out homer. Diaz's solo shot in the fourth extended the lead to 3-0.
But then Morton had his one spat of trouble. He got two quick outs, but then allowed two singles and a walk to load the bases. Then Steve Wilkerson, who hit the two-run homer that doomed the Rays in the opener, struck again lacing a two-run single.
The Rays answered back, and strong, scoring three in the sixth, seventh and ninth.
The loss in the matinee was the latest in a series ascribed to the bullpen, which made it worse.
"No doubt," catcher Mike Zunino said. "It's a little bit easier to swallow if something happens earlier. It's one of those things where these ones are always tough."
Zunino gave the Rays a lead in the third with his 100th career home run. And rookie starter Brendan McKay did all he was allowed to help, working five impressive scoreless innings, and out of a jam, before being lifted after 86 pitches, his most at any level this season.
That left the Rays needing their bullpen to get 12 outs, and they failed again.
Poche finished the sixth for Andrew Kittredge, but had his own issues in the seventh.
He allowed a leadoff single that went off the glove of diving second baseman Mike Brosseau, then with one out a homer to Stevie Wilkerson on the ninth straight fastball he threw him.
"We know (Wilkerson) handles the off-speed pretty well, and we know how Poche's fastball is so we tried to keep attacking him," Zunino said. "Maybe one too many there."
Poche said the problem was that he couldn't throw his fastball where he usually does up in the zone, even though he was throwing strikes lower. "Just couldn't get that fastball elevated today for that put away pitch," he said.
While the focus was on the bullpen, the offense didn't provide much help.
The day after scoring 16 runs, including seven in the first, and rapping 20 hits, the Rays managed only three Saturday afternoon. And those were all in one inning, which meant they were no-hit over the other eight by the Orioles quintet of Aaron Brooks, Jimmy Yacabonis, Shawn Armstrong, Richard Bleier and Mychal Givens. As part of that, they were 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position.
Before the Rays lost the game, McKay gave them a chance to win, turning in a third straight solid start since moving up from Double-A to Triple-A to the majors.
Though not overly sharp early, McKay was effective, allowing only three hits with no walks and seven strikeouts.
"I think some of the innings early on I was trying to do a little too much," he said. "Just for me picking on myself, it wasn't what I wanted but you still got the results that you'd like to see."
Most impressive was his work in the fifth after starting by allowing two singles. With runners on the corners, he struck out Keon Broxton and Wilkerson, then got Richie Martin to ground out.
"He made a lot of big pitches and continues to show that ice water running through his veins, like nothing rattles him," Cash said. "Obviously we like everything we've seen from him, and he's definitely going to continue to get better."
McKay said he appreciated the opportunity to pitch out of trouble in the fifth.
"I think they wanted to see what would happen, and I wanted to see what would happen, too," he said. "I think I had a little jam against the Yankees (in his last start) and they scored a couple runs.
"It shows a lot of what you can do and how you challenge yourself and go about your business when you've got runners on. Obviously, you don't want to give up runs, but how you go about it and if you show that intensity that you're trying to make every pitch quality and fight for yourself and your time."
Saturday's doubleheader was the Rays' third of the season (also at Kansas City and at Boston) and the 30th overall in their 22 years of play. They are 4-13-13.
