When Ramón Laureano sent a ball over the left-field wall in the ninth inning, it was just another sign of the Orioles’ entire season: too little, too late.
The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Orioles 11-3 Saturday, putting to bed Friday’s 14-run loss. Meanwhile, Baltimore’s performance was borderline nightmarish in a game in which nothing — not the fielding, batting or pitching performances — went right.
The Orioles’ first inning was littered with bad omens for a game barely played. With an RBI single, the second batter, Brandon Lowe, put the Rays on the board.
A batter later, Jonathan Aranda took a four-seam pitch down the center of the plate and launched it 467 feet to Eutaw Street.
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Notably, the last time a baseball went that far was April 29, when Trent Grisham and the New York Yankees posted a 15-3 victory over Baltimore.
After Zach Eflin gave up two singles, the crowd grew uneasy. Chandler Simpson advanced to third on a fielding error by Eflin, and the crowd reached a fever pitch. As the ball trickled into shallow center field, the boos and jeers rained in.
Eflin left the game after one inning with lower back tightness.
Scott Blewett, who warmed up in the bullpen by the time the third Orioles batter stepped into the box, took Eflin’s place.
Blewett threw a career-high 56 pitches, and for the first two innings of the three he pitched, the team steadied. But, much to the annoyance of Camden Yards fans, the messiness eventually continued.
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With two outs in the fourth, Yandy Díaz shot the ball over the center-field wall for a two-run homer. Having seen enough, some fans climbed the stairs, wanting to do something productive with the rest of the sunny Saturday evening.
On defense, the Orioles weren’t much better. Catcher Chadwick Tromp joined Eflin with a throwing error of his own, and it eventually led to another Rays run.
Matt Thaiss put a ball into play against the right-field wall. Laureano misread the bounce, and the ball sailed over his head, right out of reach.
Scrambling, Cedric Mullins threw the ball into the infield before Laureano could. It was too late. Two runs scored, and Thaiss nabbed a triple.
In the end, the biggest help the Orioles received was from their right-field wall, where a sharply hit ball from Josh Lowe in the fourth resulted only in a single. In 19 other ballparks, including the Rays’ George M. Steinbrenner Field, his hit would’ve been a homer.
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In their at-bats, the Orioles left much to be desired. Only one player, Jackson Holliday, secured at least one hit through 4 2/3 innings.
However, Holliday, who had two hits, also failed to execute at times. In the third inning, he was thrown out at second after he tried to extend a single into a double.
In the sixth inning, Ramón Urías struck out on an automatic strike after the timer ran out before Urías was in the box and making eye contact with Rays starter Zack Littell.
Tromp’s first home run of the year was the only silver lining until the ninth. He sent the first ball of his fifth-inning at-bat over the right-center wall to the crowd’s enthusiastic applause.
Tromp joined the Orioles from Triple-A Monday, after the team put catcher Maverick Handley on the seven-day concussion injured list.
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As for the rest of the team, Baltimore’s chances of a postseason run are faint, dimming each time the team can’t capitalize on games against divisional opponents.
This article will be updated.