The Rays beat the Orioles 5-4, thanks mostly to a smoking hot bullpen and a weak Orioles defense. The Rays hardest hit balls were straight into the gloves of defenders, largely right fielder Austin Hays. Their five runs came largely on weak hits that were either slightly or badly misplayed by Baltimore. In short, it was not a glorious game, but over a 162 game season there will surely be well-played losses and lucky wins. This was the latter.
The first inning was the baseball version of “death by a thousand cuts” for Baltimore and their starter, Jorge Lopez.