SB Nation • 5 min read

Series Preview: Tampa Bay Rays vs Baltimore Orioles

The Baltimore Orioles are really good baseball team. They just didn’t play that way for the first half of the season and it totally wrecked their year.

On May 17th, the Orioles were 15-27 and made the decision

to fire Brandon Hyde, who was in his 6th season as the team’s manager. Since removing Hyde and replacing him with Tony Mansolino, the Orioles are 58-55. However, their early season hole was just to much to overcome. The Orioles do still have a chance to avoid the humilation of finishing in last place in the American League East as they are three games behind the Tampa Bay Rays with six games to play including three against Tampa.

The Rays meanwhile managed to win their final game at George Steinbrenner Field and avoid a sweep at the hands of the Boston Red Sox. Tampa Bay is currently 76-80, having dropped or tied each series since sweeping the Mariners to open the month.

Baltimore has been led this year by Gunnar Henderson, who shrugged off an a sluggish start to the year to hit .273/.348/.437 with 16 HR, registering a 119 wRC+ and accruing 4.5 fWAR. However, Henderson stands out on the Orioles roster as the next closest players in fWAR are Jordan Westburg (111 wRC+ | 1.6 fWAR) and Jackson Holliday (98 wRC+ | 1.3 fWAR).

On the mound, Trevor Rogers is having a fantastic year and could possibly be a Cy Young candidate if he had pitched a full season. He enters play with a 1.35 ERA | 2.42 FIP over 106 2/3 IP. Dean Kremer has also been a solid part of the rotation.

Frivolities

The top players to have played for both the Rays and Orioles according to Baseball-Reference

Nelson Cruz
Jose Bautista
Aubrey Huff
Alex Cobb
Erik Bedard

The Rays best player offensively against the Orioles all-time (min. 25 PA):
- Mike Brosseau: .322/.365/.729 with 8 HR over 63 PA
  - The next four are Rey Ordonez, Tommy Pham, Aaron Ledesma, & Logan Morrison
The Rays most previous transacation with the Orioles:
- — 7/26/24: Rays trade Zach Eflin to the Baltimore Orioles for Jackson Baumeister, Matthew Etzel, & Mac Horvath
The Rays first transaction with the Orioles
- — 3/29/99: Rays trade Jason Johnson to the Baltimore Orioles for Danny Clyburn & Bolivar Volquez
  - READ MORE
    First trades in Tampa Bay Rays history: “With the Baltimore Orioles”