Bundy overpowered again
Rays hit four home runs to send Orioles to 100th setback
ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. – The Orioles reached the dubious 100loss mark Friday night at Tropicana Field, allowing four homers to a Tampa Bay Rays team that opened the night ranked second last in the American League in long balls.
The way the Orioles have played, it was a near certainty they would reach triple digit losses at some point during their three-city, nine-game, cross-country-andback road trip, and their 14-2 loss to the Rays on Friday sealed the team’s third 100-loss season in its 65-season history with one of the ugliest losses of the season.
The only two other Orioles teams to finish with 100 losses were the inaugural 1954 team (54-100) and the 1988 team (54107), and with 21 games remaining in the regular season, this year’s team could set a record for Baltimore baseball futility.
After allowing two three-run homers that gace the Orioles (41-100) an early 6-0 deficit, righthander Dylan Bundy (7-14) set an Orioles team record with 37 homers allowed. No other Orioles pitcher has allowed more than 35 in a season.
Rays left-hander Blake Snell (18-5), who has emerged as one of the best southpaws in the game and a pitcher for Tampa Bay to build around, recorded strikeouts on five of his first six outs on the way to a nine-strikeout performance over just 51⁄ innings.
With the loss, the Orioles have scored two runs or fewer in five of their first seven games on this road trip that has taken them through Kansas City and Seattle before Tampa Bay.
Orioles hitters struck out 15 times and Orioles pitchers issued 11 walks Friday.
Bundy lasted just four innings, allowing all six runs — all by the home run ball. Nick Cuiffo’s threerun homer in the second was his first major league homer and was followed by Kevin Kiermaier’s three-run shot in the third.
Bundy also issued a seasonhigh five walks, including three that placed runners on base before home runs. Bundy’s slider, his chief swing-and-miss pitch, was erratic and didn’t draw a single swinging strike Friday.
The Orioles’ only runs came on Joey Rickard’s two-run homer off Snell, a ball that chased the left-hander from the game after he reached the 104-pitch mark.
But for most of the night, Snell handcuffed a struggling Orioles offense that was willing to chase pitches up in the zone. Snell recorded 15 of his 21 swinging strikes on his four-seam fastball, which averaged 96 mph.
Three pitchers being tested for roles in the future failed to keep the game close. Left-hander Sean Gilmartin offered up a solo homer to Tommy Pham in the fifth, and the rout was on after right-hander Ryan Meisinger allowed a grand slam to Ji-Man Choi in the sixth.