ST. PETERSBURG -- After pounding the Orioles into submission with the long ball on Friday night, the Rays' offense had to get a little more creative on Saturday.
Sacrifice flies, a squeeze play and a little dash of luck helped propel Tampa Bay to a 10-5 win over Baltimore and keep the Rays' diminishing postseason hopes alive.
"We were scoring runs and adding to it," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "We needed every bit of it right there until the end."
The Rays have won 10 straight games at Tropicana Field, tied for the second longest streak in franchise history and just one game shy of the 2008 team that won 11 straight. Since June 11, the Rays are 31-8 at home, the best record in the Majors during that span. The win also helped Tampa Bay stay eight games behind Oakland, which beat the Rangers 8-6 on Saturday, for the second Wild Card slot with 21 games remaining. The Rays have won six of their last seven games.
"We've been really loose, having a lot of fun in here," third baseman Matt Duffy said. "We have a lot of young energy, which really helps. Once you start having success after having that loose atmosphere, you can really take off."
Mallex Smith led things off in the bottom of a wild first inning after reaching on a throwing error by Baltimore third baseman Renato Nunez, and he advanced to third on a fly out by Joey Wendle. On the next batter, Baltimore starter David Hess seemed to lose his grip in the middle of his delivery and ended up throwing the ball toward the first-base line, allowing Smith to come in to score the first run of the game.
Tommy Pham followed that up with a triple that bounced around in the corner down the right-field line and came in to score on a sacrifice fly by Ji-Man Choi to give the Rays a quick 2-0 lead. The triple extended Pham's hitting streak to 12 games, the longest active streak in the Majors.
The Rays continued to pile on against Hess with consecutive singles by Kevin Kiermaier and Willy Adames to put men on the corners for Jake Bauers, who delivered an RBI single through the left side of a shifted infield. The Rays then ran a delayed steal that allowed Adames to score the fourth unearned run of the game just before Bauers was tagged out in a rundown at second.
The weirdness continued in the bottom of the second inning when Brandon Lowe skied a fly ball that ricocheted off the B-Ring catwalk and fell back into fair play in shallow left-center for a double. Nick Ciuffo reached after being hit by a wayward slider on the first pitch from Hess. Then, with Lowe breaking from third on the pitch, Wendle laid down a perfectly placed squeeze bunt for the Rays' fifth run of the game.
"When they are run-scoring hits, they are all big," Cash said.
The Rays were able to tack on an insurance run in the sixth after Adames doubled to the left-field corner, which chased Hess, and moved over to third on a sacrifice bunt by Bauers off reliever Tanner Scott. Scott then uncorked a wild pitch, allowing Adames to score easily. Consecutive singles from Duffy, Ciuffo and Smith loaded the bases again for Wendle, who was able to lift a fly ball deep enough to left field for a sacrifice fly.
After a the Orioles scored twice in the top of the seventh, Tampa Bay put the game away in the bottom half of the frame thanks to a two-run single up the middle by Duffy with the bases loaded followed by an RBI single by Smith to push the Rays' lead back to five.
"We've kind of got to the point where we really believe in ourselves," Duffy said. "We feel like we are flying under the radar with some of those other teams in the American League, but we think we can beat anyone. We truly believe that and we carry that confidence with us every day."
Ryan Yarbrough, one of eight Rays pitchers on the night, picked up his 14th win of the season -- the most in the Majors for a rookie -- despite allowing three earned runs on six hits and two walks in his 3 2/3 innings of work.
"I was falling behind guys so obviously not a recipe for success," Yarbrough said. "I was trying to get a rhythm, but I didn't get there."
• Rays take field in colorful style for good cause
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Jose Alvarado was able to shut down a potential game-tying rally in the top of the seventh. Nunez, who had a two-run home run earlier in the game, led things off with a single against Rays reliever Adam Kolarek. With two outs, Chaz Roe was brought on to face Joey Rickard, who singled, with Nunez advancing to third on a throwing error by Duffy. After Rickard stole second, Jonathan Villar's two-run single and a hit batter ended Roe's night with the tying run on base. Alvarado was brought on to face Chris Davis, and he caught Davis off-guard with a full-count slider for the inning-ending strikeout.
SOUND SMART
Including Ciuffo's plunking in the second, Rays batters have been hit by a pitch 86 times this season, putting them on pace to finish the season with 99 HBPs as a team. Should Tampa Bay reach that mark, it would trail only the 2008 Cleveland Indians (103) for the all-time record.
YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
Ciuffo bailed out teammate Adames while he showed off his rocket of an arm in the top of the fifth. Rickard slapped a slow roller into the hole between third and short. Adames was able to make a nifty backhanded stop, but his throw was short and wide of first. The catcher, Ciuffo, was hustling down the line to back up the throw, corralled the ball as it rattled around in front of the dugout and nailed Rickard with a perfect throw as he attempted to advance to second.
HE SAID IT
"I understand that people are going to talk about it, but since it's been brought up in the last week or so, I haven't seen a change in the players and their mentalities coming in and putting any added pressure to try and do more than just going out and play." -- Cash, on postseason possibility
UP NEXT
The Rays will wrap up their season series against Baltimore with a 1:10 p.m. ET matinee on Sunday. Ryne Stanek (2-3, 2.65 ERA) will fill the role of opener. Left-hander Josh Rogers (1-1, 4.35) will be making a spot start for the Orioles in place of former Ray Alex Cobb, who is dealing with blister issues on his throwing hand. The Rays are 23-17 against left-handed starters this season.