O's game blog: The series opener at the Trop

The Orioles begin a three-game weekend series tonight in St. Petersburg, Fla. versus the Tampa Bay Rays. They do so with the memory of a four-game sweep at the Trop the last time they were there.

The O's and Yankees are both 68-48 beginning play tonight after both lost last night. While the O's play the Rays this weekend, the Yankees will host the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers. The Yankees have won five straight home series over the Rangers. 

Perhaps the ninth-inning rally last night gives the O's some momentum as a new series begins. They entered the last inning at Rogers Centre down 7-2 but scored four runs to pull within one. Jackson Holliday scored one with an RBI grounder, Cedric Mullins doubled in a run and Colton Cowser scored two with a single to right field.

But the rally ended there and the O's lost an American League East series for just the second time this season. They are now 7-2-2 in 11 division series. 

Cowser had homered earlier and he drove in four runs to tie his season high for the third time. Cowser has hit safely in 18 of his last 20 games since July 19, batting .355/.419/.592/1.011 with three doubles, five homers and 19 RBIs.

Cowser's 17 homers lead all rookies. The Cubs' Michael Busch is next with 16 and San Diego's Jackson Merrill has hit 15 home runs.

The Orioles and Yankees can't seem to separate from each other. The O's are 3-4 their last seven games, 11-15 in the past 26 and 19-23 since June 21. They began that stretch getting swept at Houston to start a five-game losing streak. The O's have a minus-36 run differential in the last 42 games.

New York recently had a stretch of winning, going 8-1 over nine games, before losing the last two games to the Los Angeles Angels. The Yankees are 9-8 in the last 17 and 17-22 since June 21, but with an even run differential in that span.

Former Rays right-hander Zach Eflin (7-7, 4.05 ERA) will make his 22nd start and his third with the Orioles. He is 2-0 with a 3.65 ERA his first two starts with Baltimore, allowing 15 hits in 12 1/3 innings with one walk to 10 strikeouts.

The Orioles acquired him ahead of the trade deadline, sending prospects Jackson Baumeister, Mac Horvath and Matthew Etzel to the Rays.

Last season, Eflin went 16-8 with a 3.50 ERA for the Rays and finished sixth in the AL Cy Young voting. In 50 starts with Tampa Bay since 2023, he has gone 21-15 with a 3.72 ERA and 1.078 WHIP.

He has made two career appearances against Tampa Bay, going 0-1 with a 4.91 ERA, allowing four runs in 7 1/3 innings. 

Rays right-hander Zack Littell (5-7, 4.06 ERA) makes his 23rd start for the home team. In 119 2/3 innings for the year he has a 1.329 WHIP while walking 1.7 batters per nine innings and getting 8.1 strikeouts.

The Rays are 11-11 in his 22 starts and he has been very good the last two, against Cincinnati and Houston, with a 0.71 ERA. He has thrown a combined 12 2/3 innings, allowing seven hits and one run and a .167 batting average.

On June 2 at Baltimore, he gave up 11 hits and three runs over six innings on 93 pitches.

The Orioles are 6-1 versus the Rays this season as the clubs played seven times in 11 days starting May 31. The Orioles have won 14 of the last 19 games between these two teams and are 23-13 their past 36 games against Tampa Bay.

From June 7-10, they completed a four-game sweep at the Trop by a 25-7 score. In that series, Baltimore pitchers held Tampa Bay to three, zero, two and two runs with a 1.00 ERA and .460 OPS against. The Orioles outhomered the Rays 9-2 in the four games, producing 42 hits and a .906 OPS at Tropicana Field.

Tampa Bay is 58-56 overall and 16-21 in AL East games. They have won six of their past 10. The Rays are 24-17 the last 41 games with a team ERA of 3.19 as they have gone from five games below the .500 mark to two games over.

Here is a cool note from Stats Perform: Anthony Santander has hit 25 homers over his 60 games played since the beginning of June. He is the third switch hitter in MLB history to hit 25+ home runs over a 60-game span within a single season, joining Hall of Famers Mickey Mantle and Chipper Jones.