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Series Notebook: Birds Start Second Half on a High Note

Matt Wieters and J.J. Hardy low-five after a home run.
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Three words: Baseball is back!

Fresh off of the All-Star break, the Orioles didn’t skip a beat during their trip to St. Petersburg, taking two out of three against the Rays at the Trop.

Down 2-0 early on Friday, Pedro Alvarez launched a solo shot to cut the lead in half in the third inning before Jeff Maile knocked in a run to put the Rays back up 3-1. Alvarez would come through again with an RBI double in the fifth before Matt Wieters leveled the score with an RBI fielder’s choice in the sixth.

With the game still tied in the eighth inning, Jonathan Schoop would complete the Orioles comeback bid by slamming his 15th homer of the season off of Chris Archer.

Zach Britton would make it interesting in the ninth after allowing a one-out double to Brad Miller, who would come just ninety feet away from scoring the game-tying run after a wild pitch.

But the Orioles star closer had other plans. After intentionally walking Evan Longoria, Britton struck out both Logan Morrison and Steven Souza to nail the door shut and hand the Orioles a 4-3 win in the opening game of the series.

After J.J. Hardy gave the O’s the lead with a two-run bomb off of Matt Moore in the second inning on Saturday, Chris Tillman (7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K) would silence the Rays all night long before letting Brad Brach and Britton wrap up the Orioles’ 2-1 victory.

The headline on Sunday was obviously Dylan Bundy making his first MLB start, but the Rays would rain (home runs) on his parade quite a bit. Longoria went deep in the first inning, followed by Oswaldo Arica cranking a two-run shot in the second and Miller launching a solo shot in the third.

Alvarez pegged back a run with his 11th home run of the season in the sixth, but Longoria would put the game to bed with his second homer of the day in the eighth to snap the Rays eight-game losing streak and give them the 5-2 win.

But hey, the Orioles are 7-1 in their last eight games versus their division rivals. So there’s that, even if the Birds couldn’t bust out the brooms on Sunday.

Now, let’s take a peek at the highlights from the O’s trip to Florida:

– Before Sunday’s loss, the Orioles had rattled off seven straight wins versus Tampa Bay and now own a 9-3 record against them on the year. But it’s nothing new; the Orioles are 31-19 against the Rays since the start of the 2014 season.

– After throwing two scoreless innings versus Tampa, Brach has now allowed just one earned run in his last 15.2 innings (13 games) while allowing only three hits and striking out 20 batters in the process.

– After recording his 28th and 29th saves versus the Rays, Zach Britton is now tied with Miami’s A.J. Ramos for the second-most saves in the majors. The 28-year-old All-Star has also posted 29.2 straight shutout innings while posting a microscopic 0.30 ERA along with 23 saves in his last 30 games. During that stretch, Britton has allowed just one run in 30.1 innings while recording 36 K’s. He hasn’t allowed a run since April 30th against the White Sox. Simply amazing.

– Chris Tillman- Where would we be without him? The Anaheim native is now tied with the Nationals Stephen Strasburg and the Giants Johnny Cueto for the second-most wins in the league (13) and the Orioles are 17-3 when Tillman is on the hill. Also, the Orioles are 9-0 when Tillman pitches against their AL East rivals. If that isn’t an ace, I don’t know what is.

– Despite having his ten-game hit streak snapped on Sunday, Mark Trumbo has went 10-for-28 at the plate (.357) with four homers and six RBI over his last seven games and has posted a .328 average with six bombs and 13 RBI over his last 15 games. Oh, and he still leads the majors in home runs (28).

– Schoop’s ten-game hit streak also ended on Saturday, but the 24-year-old still boasts a .344 average with two homers and ten RBI over his last 15 games and a remarkable .377 average with six home runs and 20 RBI over his last 30.

– Hardy has been turning the clocks back as of late with his stellar play and comes into the Bronx owning a current ten-game hit streak in which he’s recorded a ridiculous .384 batting average with five runs, four doubles, two homers and nine RBI.

– Pedro Alvarez has been tearing the cover off the ball in recent times and now owns a .370 average with two homers and five RBI over his last seven games and an outstanding .345 average with six home runs and 13 RBI over his last 15 games. Watch out, MLB. ‘’El Toro’’ is heating up…

That’s all for now, O’s nation!

Next on the calendar is a four-game trip to the Bronx to take on the Bombers at Yankee Stadium.

Keep it rolling, O’s! 72 games until October…

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