The O’s scored five runs in the 1st inning and never looked back, completing a sweep of the Rays with an 11-2 pummeling of the American League’s top team.
The Orioles came into Wednesday’s bottom of the 1st ranked 27th in 1st inning runs and 26th in 1st inning average. But just as we saw in the first two games against Tampa, the O’s continued to show their new and improved selves from the start of the series finale vs. the Rays.
Taylor Ward led off the rally by slashing Steven Matz’s first pitch of the evening
into center field for a lead-off single. That brought up Gunnar Henderson, who was 0-for-9 in the first two games of the series. The former All-Star SS put those struggles behind him with one swing, launching a 1-1 changeup onto Eutaw Street to give the Orioles a lightning-fast 2-0 lead.
After an Adley Rutshcman walk, Pete Alonso kept the rally going, with the Polar Bear collecting his 1,000th career hit on a single to center. Coby Mayo walked on five pitches to load the bases, setting up Leody Taveras to extend the lead on a single dumped just in front of RF Ryan Villade.
Tyler O’Neill then got the first out of the inning, striking out on a 2-2 changeup after barely missing a grand slam on a ball pulled down the left field line. Blaze Alexander picked up the Orioles’ fifth hit of the inning on a sinker lined to left that brought home Alonso and Mayo. Jeremiah Jackson would fly out to center and Ward would strike out looking after a nine-pitch battle to end the offensive explosion. The O’s saw 36 pitches in the inning, sent 10 batters to the plate and set an early tone against a battered and befudled Matz.
Two of the more often maligned Orioles would combine to extend the Baltimore lead in the 3rd. Mayo led off the inning by turning on a first-pitch sinker and sending it down the left field line for a leadoff double. Two batters later, O’Neill got another changeup left over the plate by Matz, and General Soreness dropped it into left to score Mayo and increase the lead to 6-0.
The Oriole infielders would add on some insurance runs against former Oriole Jonathan Heasley. Mayo and Taveras welcomed Heasley into the game with back-to-back singles to lead off the 5th. After Taveras stole second, Alexander turned on a fastball in on his hands, shooting a double down the left field line that grew the O’s lead to 8-0.
Henderson and Alexander would then give Birdland some fireworks to further bury the Rays. Gunnar led off the 6th with his 13th long ball of the season on a drive to deep center field. The solo shot gave Gunnar his first two-homer game since June 21st, 2024 and has him on pace for 37 homers in 2026. Alexander then hit the O’s final deep fly of the evening, blasting a two-run homer off Hesley to give Baltimore an 11-1 lead. His first Orioles home run gave Alexander 6 RBIs on the night, setting a new career-high for the 26-year-old.
While the offensive fireworks will steal the headlines from Wednesday’s game, the defense behind rookie starting pitcher Trey Gibson also deserves a ton of credit for the Orioles completing the sweep. Baltimore came into Wednesday 25th in Baseball Reference’s Defensive Runs Saved metric, but the infield in particular looked like a unit Earl Weaver would be proud of.
Gibson ran into some early trouble in the 1st after giving up a lead-off single to the speed Chandler Simpson. However, the right-hander then rolled his first double-play ball of the night, getting Junior Caminero to ground into an around-the-horn, 5-4-3 double play to erase the early runner. After a single by Jonathan Aranda and a walk from Yandy Díaz, Pete Alonso made a nice snag for a 3-1 groundout to strand both runners.
The defense would then bail Gibson out again in the 3rd to keep the game scoreless. No. 9 hitter Hunter Feduccia led off the inning with a single up the middle, before Simpson and Aranda walked to put Baltimore in a bases-loaded, one-out jam. Gibson then picked up his first strikeout of the evening on a cutter that just caught the top of the zone against Díaz. That set the stage for the defensive play of the day, as Gunnar Henderson denied Richie Palacios of a run-scoring infield single on a Machado-esque throw from short.
The Orioles would turn two other double plays in the 4th and 5th to kill rallies before they started. Alexander started an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play on a Carson Williams grounder. Then, after a Feduccia leadoff single in the 5th, a sharp grounder from Simpson turned into a 4-6-3 double play—only the second time Simpson has been doubled up all season.
The Rays finally got on the board against Gibson in the 6th, thanks to some would-be double-play balls that the Orioles’ infield didn’t turn. Aranda led off the inning with a single and then moved to second on a Díaz walk. Palacios then pounded a hard grounder to Alonso at first, who tried to start a 3-6-3 double play, only for a high throw to momentarily pull Henderson off the bag and prevent a timely throw back to first. Then, with runners at the corners, Gibson got Villade to hit a grounder to short, which turned into a run-scoring fielder’s choice after the Rays outfielder beat Jeremiah Jackson’s throw to first.
After losing his shutout on his 100th pitch of the night, Gibson would exit to an ovation from the Camden Yard faithful, coming up just one out short of his first-ever quality start. After Keegan Akin got the final out of the 6th, it closed the rookie’s line at 5.2 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 4 BB and 1 K. With 13 outs via ground ball, Trey Gibson looked like the best version of former Oriole Kyle Gibson as he shut down the Rays.
The win sealed the Orioles’ first sweep over Tampa since a four-game sweep in Tropicana Field in June 2024. The O’s last swept the Rays in Baltimore during the COVID-shortened 2020 season. This is also the first time the Rays have been swept this season.
Baltimore will look to earn their first four-game win streak of the season when they welcome the Blue Jays to Camden Yards tomorrow.
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