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Displaced from Camden Yards this weekend because of the unrest in Baltimore, the Orioles called Tropicana Field home for a series against the Tampa Bay Rays.
It was another wrench thrown into a young Orioles season that has been full of obstacles. Even as its schedule was reworked the team did not complain, knowing the agony of people in their home city was much worse.
On Sunday, the club left Tampa Bay having shown its resilience with a 4-2 comeback victory over the Rays. The Orioles won two of three in their so-called home series at The Trop.
“It’s unusual circumstances, this is a lot more serious than a rain delay or rainout and doubleheader,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. “But there’s always challenges all year long, but we’ve had our share. We hope to get a break from them.
“But we got on a jet plane and flew here and stayed in a hotel,” Showalter said. “We lost some home games. I know it’s a challenge because it’s a break from a routine. But not once have I heard it talked about as an excuse or ‘woe is me.’ There’s plenty more people who could use that back in Baltimore more than us, and I really don’t want to hear about it.”
The Orioles (12-11) scored four unanswered runs – all with two outs — to win for the fifth time in their past six games. The team is above .500 for the first time in two weeks.
Center fielder Adam Jones hit a two-run single off Rays reliever Kevin Jepsen to cap a three-run, two-out rally in the seventh inning. Jones’ fourth hit of the afternoon tied his career high. The Orioles had a pair of two-out, run-scoring hits that inning. Before Jones’ double, designated hitter Jimmy Paredes hit an RBI double to left off Jepsen to tie the game, 2-2.
With the series on the line, there was extra emotion in Sunday’s game. As Jones singled up the middle, he rounded first base, yelled emphatically toward the Orioles dugout and gave first-base coach Wayne Kirby a forceful fist bump.
“Sports is known to always bring people together,” Jones said. “That’s just what sports are. I remember as a teenager, with 9/11, how baseball brought back the fans and made everybody feel comfortable for those three hours. You get away from your own reality. Hopefully, we can do that for Baltimore. Same thing. But we’re just going to go out there and play the game hard and play for our city. That’s our message.”
The Orioles left Florida on Sunday for a city where things were getting back to normal. Following the chaos of the past week stemming from the death of Freddie Gray, an African American man who died in Baltimore police custody, a citywide 10 p.m. curfew was lifted on Sunday.
The team plans to leave for New York via train on Monday for a six-game trip against the Mets and Yankees. On Tuesday at Citi Field, the Orioles will play their first game that wasn’t postponed, closed to the public or relocated since April 26.
On Sunday, an announced crowd of 16,652 – including a substantial group of Orioles fans behind the third-base dugout — filled the lower bowl of Tropicana Field, paying $15 each for general admission seating.
“The atmosphere here, quite frankly, was about as good as I’ve seen it,” Showalter said. “It was a little different than anything I’ve experienced here before. We appreciate it. It was kind of like a high school football game, where [the fans] were split down the middle on each side of the stadium.”
Jones had four hits for the third time this season, the first time in franchise history that a player has recorded three four-hit games in the season’s first 23 games since Baby Doll Jacobson did that for the St. Louis Browns in 1924.
“I’ve got one simple philosophy: Get the heater and try not to miss it,” said Jones, who is leading the American League with a .402 batting average. “After that, I don’t even know. It all draws a blank.”
Left-hander Wei-Yin Chen recorded the Orioles’ sixth straight quality start. He allowed nine baserunners — seven hits and two walks — over six innings, but allowed just two runs.
The Orioles’ starting rotation owns a 1.91 ERA over the past six games.
The Orioles bullpen tossed three scoreless innings, including a four-out save by closer Zach Britton, who saved his fifth game of the season and his first since April 18.
“There’s been a lot of things that have been turning around,” said right-hander Tommy Hunter, who needed just nine pitches to get through a perfect seventh inning and eventually earn the win. “The bullpen’s been getting a little better. The starters are getting deeper. We’re playing defense and putting runs up on the board. I think that’s the object of the game. To play ‘bad baseball’ and still be, what, two games outside [the division lead]? That’s bad baseball for us and we’re still in the mix of things.”
The Rays mysteriously pulled starter Nathan Karns from the game after five scoreless innings. Karns had allowed just three baserunners — two singles and a walk – and thrown just 66 pitches.
“We can probably sit here and second guess a lot of situations, and again, that’s on me,” Rays rookie manager Kevin Cash said. “Could he have gone back out? Without a doubt he could have.”
That opened the door for the Orioles, who scored their first run of the game on a two-out pinch-hit single by Rey Navarro, who replaced second baseman Steve Pearce after he was removed from the game with a stomach illness.
Rays first baseman James Loney opened the scoring with a solo homer off Chen in the second inning on 0-2 fastball that caught the outer half of the plate.
Tampa Bay (13-12) went up 2-0 in the fifth on Logan Forsythe’s two-out, seeing-eye single to left that just got past shortstop Everth Cabrera and allowed Kevin Kiermaier to score from second base.
Chen left the game trailing, 2-1, and is winless in five starts despite a 2.83 ERA this season. He said he knew that as long as he kept the game close, his offense could eventually make up the difference.
“Our team has always been like this,” Chen said through his interpreter, Louis Chao. “Keep battling, grinding out there until the very last moment. I think that’s just how we are.”