Orioles: 4, Rays: 5 - Phamtastic Phinish

Coming off a series sweep against the Cleveland Indians, the Rays come into an early Labor Day afternoon game against the Baltimore Orioles, and are looking to keep their winning streak, and wild card berth playoff hopes, alive.

Ryan Yarbrough getting another, well deserved, traditional start. In his last 7 games Yarby is 3-0 with a 2.27 ERA and 0.76 WHIP.

Rays got things started in the 3rd inning, after a Joey Wendle single, Austin Meadows stepped up and launched his 25th HR of the season to give the Rays an early 2-0 lead.

In the 5th inning, Rays got another scoring opportunity, as Joey “Brandon Guyer” Wendle got hit by a pitch and Austin Meadows singled to put two runners on with two outs and Tommy Pham up to bat.

A nice 4-0 lead for the Rays after 5.0 Innings.

Ryan Yarbrough seemed to be cruising after five innings, giving up only sprinkled singles and no walks up to this point.

Th 6th inning was not so nice to Yarby and the Rays. It opened up with a Hanser Alberto home run.

Nothing too bad, Rays still have a 4-1 lead and Yarby was able to get two outs from a Trey Mancini groundout, and Anthony Santander strikeout.

You know how they say the third out is the hardest to get? This was especially true today. Renato Nunez hit a scorching 63.1 MPH single, and then a bunt single by Villar puts two on with two out with Mark Trumbo at the plate.

A double by Trumbo makes it 4-3 Rays with another runner in scoring position.

Pedro Severino would be the 7th batter in the inning, and would not go quietly. Yarbrough did get him to a 3-2 count, but after 13 pitches Severino won this one with an oppo single to score Mark Trumbo.

Despite the difficult, and long inning, Kevin Cash still let Yarby finish out the inning and got DJ Stewart to line out to end the inning. 35 pitch inning for Yarby, and the game is now tied at 4.

Ryan Yarbrough’s final line: 6.0 IP, 9 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, and 4 Ks on 95 pitches.

Diego Castillo would be called on for the 7th inning and had a great outing. Thats not sarcasm! Groundout, strikeout, and flyout for his 1st 1-2-3 inning in what seems like forever.

Oliver Drake came out for the 8th, and sat the Orioles down in order for the 2nd straight inning and kept the Rays tied.

Rays chances were looking up in the bottom of the 8th inning after a Tommy Pham HBP gave the Rays a baserunner with only one out. The HBP didn’t hurt him too much, as he stole 2nd base, his 18th of the season, to put him in scoring position with only 1 out.

It didn’t workout for the Rays, as Ji-Man Choi and Travis d’Arnaud both struck out to end the inning and the threat.

Emilio Pagan gave the Rays another clean inning even messing with Pedro Severino’s timing, and got him looking on a 97 MPH fastball.

Still 4-4, bottom of the 9th with Nate Lowe, Avisail Garcia, and birthday boy Willy Adames up to bat.

Baltimore Orioles went to Mycheal Givens and he immediately struck out Nate Lowe on 3 pitches. Avisail Garcia is up, and despite being 0 for 3 for the day, is 4 for 5 with 2 HR against Mychael Givens. Despite a 10 pitch at bat, Givens struck out Garcia on a 97 MPH, inside fastball.

That brought up birthday boy Willy Adames, and despite a few good hacks, fouled out to end the inning and send this game into extras.

This isn’t exactly how I wanted to celebrate Labor Day.

Colin Poche took the mound for the 10th inning, and despite a infield single to Hanser Alberto got the inning ending double play.

Bottom of the 10th saw a Joey Wendle walk with only one out. Austin Meadows grounded out to move Wendle to 2nd base with Tommy Pham (He’s hitting .409 in his last 11 games) up to the plate.

Rays walk it off on a Tommy Pham single, bringing home Wendle (who hustled down the line and had a nice slide) and give the Rays a 5-4 win. Their 5th win in row and sit 1.0 game ahead of Cleveland for the top Wild Card spot.

Two game doubleheader tomorrow. 1st game starts at 3:10 PM EST.