EditorsNote: minor edits
Willy Adames homered and later added a tie-breaking double as the visiting Tampa Bay Rays rallied for a 5-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday night in the opener of a four-game series.
Adames finished 3-for-4 with three RBIs, and that made up for two costly first-inning errors that helped Baltimore score twice.
The game was delayed by rain for 2 hours, 16 minutes in the bottom of the fifth inning knocking Tampa Bay starter Ryan Yarbrough and Baltimore's Asher Wojciechowski out of the game.
Yarbrough had tossed 4 1/3 innings and allowed two runs on three hits while striking out five. Only one of those runs was earned as the left-hander came into this game with an 0.46 ERA this month.
Wojciechowski gave up two runs on four hits in his five innings of work. He struck out two and walked three.
The Orioles took a 2-0 lead on an unusual play in the first inning. Trey Mancini lined a double to left that scored Hanser Alberto from first. But Mancini came all the way around to score thanks to Adames' throwing error, his second throwing error in two plays at shortstop.
Tampa Bay answered back when Austin Meadows hit a solo homer to right in the third inning to make it 2-1.
It also set a record for the Orioles that they probably would rather have not set. It was a record 259th homer given up by Orioles pitchers this season, breaking the old mark of 258 set by the Cincinnati Reds in 2016.
Baltimore added to the record when Adames made amends for one of his miscues with a solo shot in the fifth.
After the long rain delay, Oliver Drake came on for Yarbrough and got out of the fifth. Adames then lined his two-run single off Miguel Castro in the sixth which gave Tampa Bay a 4-2 lead.
Meadows scored in the ninth on a Gabriel Ynoa wild pitch.
Drake (2-1) earned the win with 1 2/3 innings of shutout relief, while Castro (1-2) took the loss. Emilio Pagan took care of the ninth for the Rays and notched his 14th save.
--Field Level Media
