The Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles will face off again after a few days apart, and neither club is bound to be pleased with recent trends.
The Rays and Orioles will meet in the opener of a three-game series Friday night in Baltimore.
The Orioles beat Tampa Bay in three of four games from last Friday through Monday night, when a four-game skid began for Baltimore. Three of the four games in the series were decided by one run.
"It's just the consistency piece. That's what's been eluding us all year, just playing consistent baseball," Orioles manager Craig Albernaz said. "Like, we keep on showing flashes and stretches, and then flashes and stretches the other way."
The Orioles returned home and were swept in three games by the New York Yankees, who delivered a 6-1 decision Thursday night.
So now Baltimore is two games out of the third and final wild-card spot in the American League.
"I think every game we play is not a desperate situation, but we've got to win it," Albernaz said. "You want to control your own destiny. In an ideal world, you don't want to be scoreboard watching and hoping for other teams to lose. You have to play your brand of baseball and compete and win and let the chips fall where they fall."
The league-best Rays, whose lead in the AL East has dipped to four games on the Yankees, finished a 2-5 homestand that included three Orioles victories in four meetings. Tampa Bay fell 5-1 to the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday afternoon before the Rays begin a six-game road trip on Friday.
"We're playing in a very challenging division," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "Certain teams that maybe got off to some slower starts are playing better baseball right now."
The last time the Rays ventured away from home, they produced a 9-0 trip that rated as one of the best in big-league history.
"We just have not got it done on this homestand for whatever reason," Cash said. "Maybe it's a good thing to get back out on the road."
Rays third baseman Junior Caminero has gone eight games without a home run, but he hit five long balls on the last road trip.
Right-hander Freddy Peralta (5-10, 5.27 ERA) will make his fourth start for the Rays since being acquired from the New York Mets. He has allowed 12 runs in 14 1/3 innings, so the Rays are waiting for him to get into form. Still, Tampa Bay won two of the three games in which Peralta pitched.
He has made three career starts against the Orioles, going 1-1 with a 2.87 ERA.
The Orioles have left-hander Trevor Rogers (8-8, 4.15 ERA) slated to pitch in the series opener. He picked up a 10-2 victory Sunday at Tampa Bay by limiting the Rays to two runs in six innings, though he lost in a horrid May outing vs. the Rays when he allowed eight runs (seven earned) in 3 2/3 innings.
Rogers is 2-1 with a 5.40 ERA in six career starts vs. Tampa Bay.
Baltimore first baseman Pete Alonso owns a career-best 12-game hitting streak.
--Field Level Media
