BALTIMORE (AP) — Yandy Diaz homered among his three hits and drove in two runs, Jose Siri denied Gunnar Henderson a potential go-ahead home run with a leaping grab and the Tampa Bay Rays beat Baltimore 7-1 on Saturday, knocking the Orioles from the AL East lead.
“I don’t know if I have the words to describe it,” manager Kevin Cash said of Siri’s fourth-inning play. “But it was a game-changer for sure.”
Taylor Walls also homered and had two RBIs as the Rays evened the series and dropped the Orioles a half-game behind the New York Yankees, who beat the Chicago Cubs earlier in the day.
Jonny DeLuca also had three hits and Logan Driscoll had an RBI single in the seventh inning.
Ryan Pepiot (8-6) allowed only one run over 5 1/3 innings despite allowing nine baserunners.
“We had a good plan going into it,” said Pepiot, who allowed six hits and two walks while striking out four. “When they did get guys on, let one pitch take us to the next one and then get ourselves out of situations.”
Zach Eflin (10-8) yielded three runs over 5 2/3 innings in his second start against his former team since the Rays dealt him to the Orioles in late July. Cedirc Mullins’ 15th home run closed the deficit to 3-1 in the sixth before the Rays added on late.
“Just kind of a struggle all around today, honestly,” Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde said. “We wasted opportunities offensively, and we made a mistake defensively and gave up too many runs.”
Diaz’s 14th homer was also his fifth to lead off a game, and Walls added his solo shot in the third to double the lead.
Pepiot had already escaped one-out jams in the second and third before the Orioles nearly mounted a two-out rally in the fourth.
After Emmanuel Rivera and James McCann singled, Henderson drove Pepiot’s ninth pitch of the at-bat toward the seats in front of the scoreboard in right-center. Siri looked back to the fence and up at Henderson’s drive, scaled the wall and met the ball with his outstretched glove, corralling it in the webbing. After his descent, he pounded his chest in celebration as Henderson slammed his helmet to the turf.
“It’s unbelievable,” Walls said. “He does those things like it’s normal, honestly. If the ball’s hit in the vicinity of where he can catch it, you know there’s a chance he’s going to get it.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Rays: 2B Brandon Lowe was held out for a second consecutive day with a swollen middle finger on his right hand but said the injury is improved. “We’re doing five, six, seven treatments a day to try to make sure we’re getting it back to normal,” Lowe said. … Driscoll exited the game with a left thigh bruise following his single, two innings after the catcher hit a railing and made a tumbling catch into the Rays dugout.
UP NEXT
Orioles ace Corbin Burnes (13-7, 3.19 ERA) goes against Rays RHP Zack Littell (5-9, 4.04), who is making his second start since returning from the 15-day injured list.
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