For the Orioles, it has been three days at Tropicana Field that seems to have dramatically changed their season.
They started this road trip in disappointing fashion, losing series at Texas and Minnesota, going 2-4 against two other teams chasing the third AL wild card spot in the American League.
Chances missed. Opportunity lost.
And now they would face the best team in the majors with Tampa Bay entering on a nine-game win streak and with a 41-18 home record. They swept three from Baltimore in May at the Trop by a combined 25-10 score.
This series has been very, very different.
After stirring and dramatic one-run wins Friday and Saturday that went to the last pitch, today the Orioles scored three runs in the fifth and seven in the sixth to beat the Rays 10-2.
Remember when the Orioles scored just one run for three games in a row? It wasn’t that long ago.
The Orioles have won six games in a row over Tampa Bay by a combined 46-20 score. They have hit .344 (21-for-61) with runners in scoring position in the six games after going 4-for-7 today. Baltimore’s team ERA in the six contests is 2.59.
The Orioles (61-63), who began today ½ game out for that final AL wild-card spot, are now 5-4 on this road trip. They are 6-3 on the year versus the Rays and are now 7-5 since the MLB trade deadline.
The Orioles are 22-15 since July 1.
The Orioles have not lost a season series to the Rays since 2022, going 8-5 in 2023, 9-4 in 2024, 7-6 in 2025 and now 6-3 this year.
That is a mark of 30-18 (.625) against Tampa Bay since the 2023 season.
The Orioles are now 8-1 their past nine games versus the Rays and Yankees.
Yes, this is all pretty remarkable for a team that is still under .500 for the year.
The Orioles have scored 45 runs their past seven games after scoring just 11 runs in the seven previous games.
Yes, this run and offense seemingly came out of nowhere.
For the first time in this series, the Orioles trailed 1-0 today on Randy Vilade’s solo homer in the fourth.
But a couple of clutch, two-out hits in the fifth tied this game and gave Batimore the 3-1 lead. Jackson Holliday’s RBI single to center – left on left versus Garrett Cleavinger – tied it 1-1. Four pitches later Pete Alonso lined a two-run double to left for a 3-1 lead.
An inning later, Colton Cowser hit a left-on-left, two-run homer to make it 5-1. It was his first homer this year off a lefty. Later Holliday came up big again with a two-run double where catcher Yohel Pozo scored the second run on a, shall we say, interesting slide home. He made it.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand later hit a groundball, three-run double down the third base line to open a remarkable 10-1 lead.
In the sixth inning, there were two outs and none on and the Orioles went on to score seven runs. Yep, seven as eight straight batters reached. Crazy and impressive inning.
That was the O’s biggest inning of the year and biggest since scoring nine in the seventh on July 26, 2025 versus Colorado.
Alonso today played in his 540th straight game. He went 1-for-1 with two walks and two RBIs. He is now 16-for-29 (.552) during an eight-game hitting streak with two doubles, four homers and nine RBIs. He began today with an OPS of 1.059 in August.
Lefty Trevor Rogers, who gave up eight runs to the Rays in May at the Trop, today allowed two runs over six innings. Over his past 13 starts, he has an ERA of 2.45 and the O’s are 9-4 in those games.
Baltimore goes for a four-game sweep of the Rays on Monday night with righty Brandon Young (9-3, 3.33 ERA) on the mound.
Heading into this stretch of 10 straight games versus the Rays and Yankees, it seemed a real challenge to see the O’s go 6-4. Now they could 3-4 from here on out and get there.