Baltimore Orioles vs Tampa Bay Rays Match Player Stats On Sep 17, 2020

Willy Adames and Joey Wendle both homered and drove in three runs as the visiting Tampa Bay Rays completed a sweep of Thursday's doubleheader with a 10-6 victory over the Baltimore Orioles, clinching a spot in the American League playoffs.

Tampa Bay won the first game 3-1, thanks to two runs in the seventh and final inning -- both games were seven frames. The Rays were the home team in the second game since this contest was a make-up of a game washed out in Tampa earlier this season.

Home runs often were the story in a game that bounced back and forth. The Rays hit three, but it was a fifth inning filled with dinks and dunks that made the difference and let Tampa Bay pull out the sweep.

Nate Lowe's single snapped a 6-6 tie in the fifth, and Kevan Smith singled on a slow roller up the third-base line that pitcher Dillon Tate couldn't make a play on. That made it 8-6 before Wendle and Randy Arozarena both added sacrifice flies to complete the scoring at 10-6.

Adames hit a three-run shot off Baltimore native and starter Bruce Zimmermann in the first. Against Zimmermann, who was making his major-league debut, Adames was trying to bounce back after striking out four times in the first game.

His homer gave the Rays (33-18) a 3-0 lead. Baltimore answered in the second with a solo homer from Hanser Alberto. A Ryan Mountcastle double in the third sliced the lead to 3-2 before Hunter Renfroe crushed a shot to left that pushed the lead back up to two for the Rays in the bottom half of the inning.

But the Orioles (22-29) erased that deficit with a four-run fourth. Rio Ruiz tied the score at 4-4- with a two-run homer, and DJ Stewart gave the team its first lead of the night with a two-run double.

That lead, though, didn't last too long. Wendle tied it for the Rays with a two-run homer off Travis Lakins in the bottom of the fourth. Tampa Bay then scored four runs in the fifth.

Pete Fairbanks (5-3) got the win while Cole Sulser (1-5) was tagged with the loss. Sulser gave up three runs in 1/3 of an inning while Fairbanks pitched a scoreless inning of relief.

--Field Level Media