O's game blog: Dylan Bundy pitches Tampa Bay series finale

The Orioles split a doubleheader with Tampa Bay on Saturday and have taken two of three in this series. As the teams meet in the series finale today, a win by the Orioles would give them two straight series wins for the first time in 2018.

The Orioles took the opener 6-3 yesterday behind right-hander David Hess. They lost the nightcap 10-3 as their pitchers allowed 12 hits and seven walks. The Orioles gave up 10 or more runs for the seventh time.

In the second game, Baltimore (12-28) saw a four-game win streak end and Tampa Bay (16-21) snapped a five-game losing streak. The Rays are 3-2 versus the Orioles.

Right-hander Dylan Bundy (1-5, 5.31 ERA) will make his ninth start of the 2018 season this afternoon. On Tuesday night, in the Orioles 15-7 loss to Kansas City to start the homestand, Bundy became the first pitcher in the modern era (since 1900) to allow four homers without getting an out. His final line was no innings, five hits and seven runs with two walks, no strikeouts and the four homers. He threw 28 pitches, 13 for strikes. Three of the home runs hit off him were at 106 or 107 mph.

So Bundy pitched to a1.42 ERA his first five starts and his ERA is 19.00 the last three. Over that three-start stretch he has thrown nine innings allowing 23 hits, 22 runs (19 earned) and has given up nine homers. That was after allowing one home run in 31 2/3 in those first five games.

After Tuesday's game, Bundy confirmed that he had a mild groin issue during his start May 2, but said he was otherwise not injured.

"Yeah, physically I'm fine," he said. "I'm just not executing the pitches I need to right now. I was leaving pitches right down the middle and they were hitting them over the fence. Got us in a 7-0 early hole that we couldn't climb out of. Yeah, I had a little groin tightness in California, but it's been fine and I was able to pitch tonight. It really hasn't been an issue."

Added catcher Caleb Joseph: "You are looking for the crispness on pitches and it just hasn't been there the past couple starts. He's obviously capable and there may or may not be other things kind of going on or whatever. He wants to get back to that kind of crisp fastball and crisp slider and (we were) just seeing a lot of kind of lazy spin and he knows it. Even just the location. The location is kind of abnormal for him. He's usually extremely great with his accuracy. Just hasn't really been there the last two or three starts."

Lefty Blake Snell (4-2, 2.40 ERA) gets the start today for the Rays. For the season over 48 2/3 innings he's allowed 32 hits and 14 walks, with 50 strikeouts and a .188 batting average against. He's given up two runs or less for six consecutive starts, going 4-1 with a 1.82 ERA.

Lefty batters hit just .118 off him and right-handers bat .218. He has allowed just a .061 average (2-for-33) and a .121 slugging percentage when pitching with runners in scoring position.

Trey Mancini hit a leadoff homer last night and he now has 11 multi-hit games. Adam Jones has nine-game hitting streak and is batting .361 (13-for-36) during that stretch. Manny Machado has 13 homers and has hit four in his last four games and 10 in the last 22.

Saturday's doubleheader was the first for the Orioles since they swept the Rays at Oriole Park on June 25, 2016.