The Tampa Bay Rays keep hanging on the fringe of contending for an American League wild-card spot, while the Baltimore Orioles reached a dubious level of futility.
Matt Duffy had two hits and two RBIs to lead the Rays to a 10-5 win over the Orioles on Saturday in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The Rays stayed eight games behind Oakland for the second wild-card spot, also trailing Seattle. Meanwhile, the Orioles fell to 60 games under .500 at 41-101.
The Rays jumped on the Orioles early, scoring four runs in the first to take a 4-0 lead.
Mallex Smith scored on a wild pitch from Baltimore starter David Hess (3-10), Ji-Man Choi hit a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0, Jake Bauers had an RBI single that made it 3-0 game and Willy Adames scored on a double-steal to give the Rays a 4-0 lead.
Joey Wendle reached on a sacrifice bunt for an RBI to give the Rays a 5-0 lead in the second before the Orioles cut their deficit to 5-1 in the third on an RBI infield single by Jonathan Villar.
Baltimore cut Tampa Bay's lead to 5-3 in the fourth on a two-run homer by Renato Nunez.
The Rays added two runs in the sixth when Adames scored on a wild pitch and Wendle hit a sacrifice fly.
Baltimore answered in the seventh, cutting the deficit to 7-5 on a two-run single by Villar.
But Tampa put the game away with three runs in the home half of the seventh.
A two-run single by Matt Duffy made it 9-5, and then an RBI single by Smith made it 10-5.
After right-hander Diego Castillo worked an inning as Tampa Bay's "opening" pitcher, Ryan Yarbrough (14-5) came on and got the win, despite allowing six hits, three runs and two walks in 3 2/3 innings.
Hess, who was hit in the eye playing catch with a football prior to Friday night's game, allowed six runs (two earned) on seven hits in five innings.
The Rays used eight pitchers overall.
--Field Level Media