TAMPA, Fla. — Orioles interim manager Tony Mansolino spent his All-Star break home in Nashville, Tennessee, chasing after his two boys.
By the time he made it to Tampa on Thursday night to prepare for the start of a crucial stretch for the Orioles, he joked that it was the most relaxed he had been all week.
Well, that feeling probably didn’t last long.
On Friday, the Orioles, who were seven games under .500 and 7.5 games out of a playoff spot entering the game, opened the second half looking to make a run to get back into contention and save a sell-off before the July 31 MLB trade deadline. Instead, they came out with an uninspired thud, the Rays’ cruising to an 11-1 win.
There was not much the Orioles did well, but starter Charlie Morton set the tone for the downfall. Baltimore lost the first 11 games Morton appeared in, but, in his last eight starts, he had pitched to a 2.76 ERA, the team winning all but one of those starts. His turnaround was so promising that Mansolino remarked after his last start that Morton was pitching like one of the best starters in baseball.
Well, he didn’t look like that this time. The Rays hit him hard and often, starting with leadoff hitter Chandler Simpson, who doubled to open the bottom of the first. Morton then allowed a walk, and Junior Caminero followed with a three-run home run.
An inning later, after a solo home run from Danny Jansen, it was 4-0, the Orioles slumped over the dugout as they watched Jansen round the bases.
Things would only continue to spiral from there. In the bottom of the sixth, with the Rays up 5-0, Jake Mangum hit a soft single and stole second. Ha-Seong Kim then flied out to Ramón Laureano, whose throw to Gunnar Henderson went through the shortstop’s legs, giving Laureano an error and allowing Mangum to score from second on a play that should have only advanced the runner to third.
Morton’s day ended shortly after that, and he was replaced by Grant Wolfram, who had impressed in his last two appearances with the team, pitching 3 2/3 scoreless innings. Well, like Morton, Friday would reverse that trend.
Yandy Díaz hit a grand slam off him to give the Rays a 10-0 lead. If the door on an Orioles’ win wasn’t already closed at that point, it was slammed later in the sixth when Caminero hit his second home run of the game.
Perhaps the pitching performance wouldn’t have looked quite as bad if the offense had done anything, but that wasn’t the case. The Orioles had fared well against Taj Bradley this season, scoring six and five runs in their two meetings last month. But this time Bradley held them to three hits in six shutout innings.
The Orioles have scored two runs in their last 28 innings.