Baltimore @ Tampa Bay preview

Baltimore at Tampa Bay

Last Meeting ( Aug 14, 2010 ) Baltimore 3, Tampa Bay 7

The silence of the bats temporarily ended for Tampa Bay on Saturday.

The Rays will look to make it two noisy offensive performances in a row on Sunday afternoon when they finish a three-game series with the Baltimore Orioles.

Tampa Bay has struggled offensively for the past three weeks but tied a season high with 15 hits in Saturday’s 7-3 victory over the Orioles.

Backup catcher Kelly Shoppach led the assault with two homers and five RBIs, but he had plenty of company as four other Rays joined Shoppach with multiple-hit games.

Willie Aybar ended a 3-for-31 stretch with a three-hit game and Jason Bartlett also had three hits. Evan Longoria and B.J. Upton chipped in with two apiece.

Tampa Bay was batting just .206 in August – worst in the American League – prior to Saturday’s splurge and the Rays will try to keep the hits coming today against Baltimore right-hander Jake Arrieta.

The Rays touched up Arrieta for five runs in 5 1/3 innings last month in Baltimore as Upton and Matt Joyce both hit homers.

The 24-year-old Arrieta defeated Cleveland in his last start despite allowing six runs (five earned) in six innings. The victory was just his second in 10 starts after he won his first two major-league starts back in June.

Overall, Arrieta is 4-3 with a 5.29 earned-run average.

Jeremy Hellickson makes his third career start for Tampa Bay. The 23-year-old right-hander was outstanding in his first two outings.

Hellickson gave up just three hits over seven innings in each of the two starts. He held Minnesota to two runs in his major league debut and blanked Detroit last time out, striking out seven without issuing a single walk.

Hellickson will look to further cool down a Baltimore attack that had just four hits in Saturday’s game. The Orioles have fared well offensively under new manager Buck Showalter but Adam Jones’ three-run homer was the only offensive highlight Saturday.

Jones has five RBIs during the series and is batting .389 (21-for-54) since Showalter took over. The Orioles are 9-3 under Showalter.

Tampa Bay remained two games behind the first-place New York Yankees in the American League East. The Rays expect to get first baseman Carlos Pena (foot) back from the disabled early this week.

Pena’s absence is part of the reason for the recent offensive funk, as Tampa Bay’s win on Saturday was just its third in the past 10 games.