Baltimore Orioles vs Tampa Bay Rays Match Player Stats On Sep 08, 2018

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