Jorge López solid, but bullpen gives it up again

Before another implosion by the Orioles bullpen turned a potential series-ending win into a loss today, O's starter Jorge López was very solid and Cedric Mullins became the seventh 20-20 player in team history.

But after scoring five runs in the eighth on Friday and again on Saturday, the Rays got six in the eighth this afternoon. Paul Fry walked three in the inning and Dillon Tate allowed a tiebreaking grand slam to Brett Phillips as Tampa Bay swept the Orioles with a 9-6 win.

The Rays entered the inning down 5-3 and left it leading 9-5. Their victory improved their record to 68-44 overall and to 11-1 against the Orioles, including a 6-0 mark with their second three-game sweep at Oriole Park. The Rays have won 21 of 29 games while the Orioles (38-72) have lost five in a row by a combined 54-19 score.

López did not pitch as much as six innings in his first nine starts this year through May 21. Then he had a recent stretch of seven starts where he didn't even pitch as much as five innings.

But today he gave the club six innings for the second start in a row. López allowed four hits and two runs in his six frames, with two walks and five strikeouts. He threw 100 pitches, 65 for strikes. Had the O's held the lead, he would have recorded back-to-back wins for the first time this year.

López now has thrown six or more innings five times his last 14 starts. He also reached the 100-pitch level for the second straight start and third time in 23 starts this season.

Over his past two games, versus the Yankees and Rays, he has thrown 12 innings, allowing five hits and three runs. Today was his fifth quality start.

López had a sharp first inning today, fanning three batters around a one-out walk. He got the strikeouts on different pitches. He fanned leadoff batter Brandon Lowe swinging at a curveball, got Nelson Cruz looking at a nasty slider and got Austin Meadows looking at a 96 mph fastball.

Down 3-0, Tampa Bay scored once in the third on Francisco Mejía's triple and a single by Lowe. An inning later, a solo homer by Meadows, his 21st, scored Tampa Bay's second run.

But López finished strong with scoreless ball over the fifth and sixth innings. The Rays made him work very hard in the fifth as four batters saw a total of 29 pitches, taking his pitch count to 90. But then he needed just 10 in a 1-2-3 sixth to end his day.

In the second half, the Orioles were 7-1 when their starting pitcher went six or more innings. Before today.

The O's scored runs in their first four at-bats to back López today.

That included a leadoff homer by Mullins in the first inning. He hit a first-pitch 92 mph fastball from Michael Wacha out to right for his 20th homer of the year. That swing gave him the team homer lead, extended his hitting streak to 16 games and made him the seventh player in O's history to have a season of 20 or more homers and steals.

20-20 seasons in O's history

1969 - Paul Blair
1975 - Don Baylor
1976 - Reggie Jackson
1992, 1996, 1999 - Brady Anderson
2015 - Manny Machado
2019 - Jonathan Villar
2021 - Cedric Mullins

Anthony Santander hit a solo homer in the Baltimore fourth. It was No. 7 for Santander and his first since July 6. He blasted that ball 422 feet to right-center.

O's batters have hit 27 homers their past 16 games. They have hit two or more homers 10 times in that 16-game span.

But it got away late again from the bullpen today. From the sixth inning on in this series, the Orioles were outscored 23-2.