Ryan Mountcastle blasted a pair of two-run home runs as the Baltimore Orioles beat the visiting Tampa Bay Rays 9-5 on Saturday in a game that featured plenty of early offense.
Anthony Santander and Jordan Westburg also homered as the Orioles won for the eighth time in nine games. Baltimore will go for a sweep of the three-game series with Tampa Bay on Sunday afternoon.
Mountcastle hadn’t homered since May 8, and he had only six RBIs in all of May.
Yandy Diaz had three RBIs for the Rays, who have lost nine of their past 12 games.
Jacob Webb (1-3) was the winning pitcher with 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Four more relievers followed Webb, and they combined to blank the Rays over the final four innings.
Tampa Bay had 10 hits, but no one on the team had more than one.
Rays manager Kevin Cash was ejected in the top of the third inning for arguing balls and strikes.
Tampa Bay starter Taj Bradley and Baltimore counterpart Kyle Bradish were coming off stellar outings last week, but they failed to build off of them on Saturday.
Bradley (1-3) gave up nine runs and nine hits, including four homers, in 3 1/3 innings. He walked three and struck out three. Meanwhile, Bradish was tagged for five runs on seven hits in 2 2/3 innings. He walked three and fanned six.
Mountcastle’s two-run homer in the first inning opened the scoring. Santander added a solo shot in the frame to make it 3-0.
Diaz ripped a two-run triple in the second to headline a three-run inning by the Rays that pulled them even at 3-3.
Westburg went deep in the home half of the frame, putting the Orioles up 4-3. Tampa Bay pulled in front in the third thanks to Jose Siri’s RBI single and a bases-loaded walk by Diaz.
But Baltimore struck for three runs in its half of the third, then Mountcastle hit his second two-run blast of the game in the fourth to close the scoring.
–Field Level Media