Rays at Orioles
After avoiding a three-game sweep at the hands of one last-place club, the Tampa Bay Rays hope to get back on track against another cellar dweller when they kick off a seven-game road trip with the first of four at the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday night. Locked in a three-team duel for the two wild cards, the Rays are 8-4 against Baltimore this season.
Kevin Kiermaier clubbed a tying home run in the bottom of the ninth inning before Tampa Bay squeezed out a 7-6 win over Seattle on a walk-off wild pitch. "You can call it an ugly win or whatever, we'll take as many as we can," Kiermaier said after the Rays completed a 3-3 homestand -- with each of the victories coming via walk-off fashion. Travis d'Arnaud went 3-for-3 in Wednesday's win and is 5-for-14 this season against the Orioles, which lost three of four at home to Tampa Bay coming out of the All-Star break. Hanser Alberto belted a three-run homer in each of the past two nights to extend his hitting streak to 10 games for Baltimore, which had lost 13 of 14 before posting a series win by taking the final two from Kansas City.
TV: 7:05 p.m. ET, FS SUN (Tampa Bay), MASN2 (Baltimore)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Rays LH Ryan Yarbrough (11-3, 3.34 ERA) vs. Orioles RH Asher Wojciechowski (2-6, 4.78)
Yarbrough has carved out a string of solid outings following the opener, but he has been superb in back-to-back starts, lowering his ERA to 0.46 in August after striking out a season-high 10 over 6 1/3 scoreless innings versus Detroit last time out. He came within one out of his first career shutout at Seattle in his previous turn and owns a 6-0 record over his last 11 appearances. Yarbrough won at Baltimore with 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball on July 14.
Wojciechowski won his last two starts last month in impressive fashion but he has struggled since the calendar flipped to August, falling to 0-3 with a 6.63 ERA after giving up two runs and five hits over 4 1/3 innings at Boston on Saturday. He has failed to get through five innings in three of his four starts this month while surrendering seven home runs and 12 walks over 19 innings. Wojciechowski lost his season debut at Tampa Bay with 5 1/3 innings of four-run ball.
WALK-OFFS
1. Kiermaier is 4-for-8 in his last two games after going hitless in 16 at-bats in his previous five contests.
2. Baltimore tied a major league record (Cincinnati, 2016) by allowing its 258th home run of the season Wednesday night.
3. Rays OF Guillermo Heredia ended a 1-for-23 rut with a homer and two hits Wednesday.