Rookie Grayson Rodriguez pitched eight shutout innings, rookie Gunnar Henderson homered and drove in three runs and the Baltimore Orioles defeated the visiting Tampa Bay Rays 8-0 on Saturday to regain sole possession of first place in the American League East.
After totaling six runs in four straight losses, the Orioles (92-56) broke out against Tampa Bay starter Tyler Glasnow. Henderson had three of Baltimore’s 11 hits and Aaron Hicks and Ramon Urias had two each.
In the longest outing of his brief career, Rodriguez (6-4) allowed five hits, did not walk a batter and struck out seven.
Baltimore clinched the season series against Tampa Bay and owns the division tiebreaker.
Glasnow (9-6) allowed six runs on eight hits in four innings, his shortest start of the season for the Rays (92-58), who had won nine of 11 games to surge into a first-place tie with the Orioles.
Tampa Bay’s Luke Raley was scratched from the lineup after colliding with a team staff member while catching fly balls in the outfield before the game.
Henderson led off the bottom of the first with a single and later scored on a single by Ryan O’Hearn to make it 1-0.
In the second inning, Urias singled with two outs, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on Adam Frazier’s line-drive single to center. Henderson then homered to center on a first-pitch slider and the Orioles lead was 4-0. It was Henderson’s 27th homer of the season.
Hicks singled to lead off the fourth. Frazier walked with two outs and Henderson singled to right, scoring Hicks. Frazier scored on a single by Adley Rutschman and the Orioles led 6-0.
Erasmo Ramirez replaced Glasnow to start the fifth. O’Hearn reached on an error by shortstop Osleivis Basabe. Hicks singled and before the inning was over, the Orioles got RBI singles from Cedric Mullins and Urias to make it 8-0.
Baltimore went 6-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
–Field Level Media
