Field Level Media
Apr 17, 2019
Brandon Lowe, Ji-Man Choi and Yandy Diaz each homered as the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the visiting Baltimore Orioles 8-1 on Wednesday night.
The Rays have taken the first two games of this series -- they won 4-2 Tuesday night, getting a two-run homer from Avisail Garcia that gave them the lead for good -- and have belted four homers so far.
Lowe's homer was the big one in this contest, a three-run shot off Baltimore starter David Hess, and it gave the Rays a 3-0 lead in the first inning.
Five Tampa Bay players finished with at least two hits as the Rays banged out 13 overall. Nine of those 13 hits went for extra bases.
Tampa Bay went with an opener. Ryne Stanek pitched a scoreless first and struck out three, and that set the stage for Yonny Chirinos to take over in the second inning.
Chirinos (3-0) then threw five scoreless innings and allowed just one hit. He struck out five and walked just one.
Hess (1-3) lasted two-plus innings and gave up six runs on eight hits, with five of the runs coming on home runs. Baltimore starters have not gotten deep into games this season, which is taxing an already inexperienced bullpen even farther.
The Rays took that first-inning lead on three hits. Austin Meadows led off with a single and Choi added a one-out single before Lowe belted his three-run shot with two outs off Hess for the 3-0 lead.
Kevin Kiermaier started the second with a double, and Mike Zunino followed with an RBI single. Then, to begin the third inning, Choi and Diaz hit back-to-back homers which gave Tampa Bay a 6-0 lead and chased Hess.
The Rays made it 7-0 off Tanner Scott when Kiermaier got an RBI single in the fifth inning.
Baltimore got on the board when Rio Ruiz hit a solo homer off Wilmer Font in the top of the seventh inning. But Diaz added an RBI double in the bottom of that inning.
The Orioles could not do much on offense all night, finishing with only three hits.
--Field Level Media