Orioles' winning streak stopped at 10 games (updated)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Orioles manager Brandon Hyde sent bullpen catcher Ben Carhart to home plate tonight for the exchange of lineup cards. As Carhart’s done during every game of the winning streak except one, on July 9, when Tyler Nevin was the sentimental choice with his father, Phil, managing the Angels.

Carhart still gets credited with the win.

Hyde keeps wearing his uniform jersey rather than the hoodie that he favors. He wasn’t changing his wardrobe until the Orioles lost.

Worse choices have been made inside a superstitious clubhouse and dugout. Hyde simply had to match his shirt and pants.

Clothes make the manager.

Someone else will handle the lineup card on Saturday, and Hyde can switch back to his casual attire. The winning streak ended tonight at 10 games with a 5-4 loss to the Rays.

Ramón Urías had his first career multi-homer game, but the Orioles moved back to .500 at 45-45.

They haven't eaten dinner and dressed inside a quiet clubhouse in a long time. The disappointment hung heavy in the air.

"Definitely been a while, but that's a great team over there and you have to play pretty flawlessly, normally, to beat them, along with the other teams in our division," said Trey Mancini. "We gave a good effort, almost came back, but came up a little short. But happens sometimes. Chances are you're not going to run the table the rest of the year. It's, how do you respond from here?"

The Orioles stranded eight runners through the sixth inning and couldn’t hold onto a 2-0 lead. Tampa Bay scored a run in the fourth, three consecutive two-out doubles in the bottom of the sixth moved the Rays ahead 3-2, and pinch-hitter Christian Bethancourt hit a two-run homer off Cionel Pérez, who hadn’t allowed a baserunner this month in six appearances.

Not a good night for streaks.

Mancini broke a scoreless tie in the third by homering to left field, his ninth of the season. The ball bounced onto the field and he paused at second base before umpire Nick Mahrley motioned him to keep going.

The Orioles couldn’t be stopped. And then it finally happened.

Their last winning streak of this length was 13 games in September 1999. They were trying to move two games above .500 for the first time since April 7, 2021.

Urías homered in the fourth for a 2-0 lead. They seemed to be on their way. But the missed opportunities hurt, and Tyler Wells kept walking a tightrope that ultimately couldn’t support his weight.

Wells put a runner on base in each of the first four innings. Yandy Díaz walked with one out in the third and Harold Ramírez doubled to right, but Ji-Man Choi struck out and Randy Arozarena lined to right.

Isaac Paredes drew a leadoff walk in the fourth and scored with one out on Yu Chang’s double to reduce the lead to 2-1. But Wells got a strikeout and fly ball, and a fist-bump from Adley Rutschman.

Wells retired the side in order on 10 pitches in the fifth and disposed of the first two in the sixth before Josh Lowe and Chang doubled to tie the game 2-2. Francisco Mejía doubled off Pérez to leave Wells with a third run on his line, and Bethancourt homered into the left field corner, the foul ball ruling overturned on review. A 318-foot shot, or a "weird one," as Hyde described it.

Anthony Santander, who spun the wrong way on a ball earlier in the game that cleared his head, tried to make a leaping catch at the short fence and came up empty.

So did the Orioles, which is typical at The Trop.

The season began with the Rays sweeping the Orioles in a three-game series in St. Petersburg. The Orioles lost nine of 10 here last year, and this streak has reached 10 in a row. The dome again spelling doom.

"I think I said it the other night, they don't call it the AL Beast for nothing," Wells said. "They are a very good team, as is everyone else in this division, and right now I think that we're also showing we're right there with them, we're just as hard to beat right now as they are."

Wells was charged with three runs and six hits in 5 2/3 innings. He ends the first half at 7-5 with a 3.38 ERA, tonight bringing his first loss since May 25.

"I think that there was a lot of unfortunate things, especially in the last inning," he said.

"To say I'm disappointed is an understatement. I think the results showed up OK, but at the end of the day, we lost the game. I felt like I didn't do my job by keeping us in it, especially in the sixth inning. It's weighing pretty heavy on me."

Wells has come a long way since his major league debut in St. Petersburg, when he worked 1 2/3 innings on a limited pitch count. He'll reflect later.

"To be honest with you, I didn't really think about it because it's hard to appreciate it right now," he said. "I feel like I've taken a lot of big steps forward, and there's still so much for me to get better at, more consistent at, so I'm looking forward to being able to take that into the second half. A lull during the All-Star break is when I'll kind of sit there and reflect on it."

Urías hit a two-run homer off Colin Poche in the eighth, which began with an Austin Hays double, to reduce the lead to 5-4.

Asked where his power is coming from, Urías said, "I don't know. I'm just trying to hit the ball hard. I think it's a better launch angle."

Urías is 12-for-31 with three homers and 11 RBIs this month since returning from an oblique injury.

"It was frustrating not being able to contribute to the team," he said.

The Rays reinstated Luis Patiño from the 60-day injured list this afternoon, and he gave them two scoreless innings before Mancini’s home run. He escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first, with Rutschman popping up in foul territory after Mancini reached on an infield single, Ryan Mountcastle walked with two outs and Hays was drilled in the left rib cage by a 94 mph sinker.

Patiño threw 20 pitches in the first and just seven in the second, allowing him to come back out for the third. He retired Cedric Mullins on a ground ball and Mancini barreled a slider.

Urías’ first home run, on a cutter that traveled 400 feet to left field and completed a seven-pitch at-bat, led to Patiño’s removal and brought former Orioles reliever Shawn Armstrong into the game.

The Orioles loaded the bases in the fifth on back-to-back singles by Mullins and Mancini, and Hays’ two-out infield hit. Rutschman struck out looking with the count full.

An eighth runner was left on base in the sixth after Jorge Mateo singled with two outs and Mullins popped up. The Rays took the hint and capitalized.

Rutschman struck out looking again in the eighth after Hays doubled, giving him seven runners left on base, but Urías followed with his ninth home run, and third in three games. The Orioles made it interesting, but not all the way back.

"You've got to be able to cash in early there," Hyde said. "We did leave a lot of runners on base. We had opportunities to score, just didn't push enough across there early. Kept them in the game, made it a close game late."

Tampa Bay is beat up, but no one feels sorry for a team that’s fallen on hard times. The Orioles can attest to it. Hit bottom and everyone piles on top.

They just can’t figure out how to keep the Rays down. And it cost them a winning streak tonight.

"We'll start another one tomorrow, right?" Urías said. "It's a tough loss, but we'll stay with the same mentality and try to win the game tomorrow."

"I think you're going to see us bounce back pretty good," Wells said. "I think the feeling of losing after 10 games is not a feeling that we want. It sucks, it sucks a lot, and it's part of baseball, but I think that the guys are going to come back stronger, I think that we're going to come back and compete. And like they always say, we're not quitters, we're not going to roll over and die. We're going to keep going after them."

Dean Kremer takes the mound Saturday for the Orioles, and the Rays are starting Ryan Yarbrough.

"I'm really proud of these guys in here," Mancini said. "I've gotten to see a lot of them grow over the last few years and become great major league players. We've been very cohesive this year and had great team chemistry, and I think that's really what's gotten us to this point. It's been great to be a part of.

"We're just going to keep doing what we do, which is, it sounds super cliché, but we're not looking weeks, months into the future at all. We're just worried about the next day. Today we were focused on today, tomorrow we're just going to worry about tomorrow. We don't look too big picture or anything like that. I think when you start to look too forward and see where you want to be in a couple months, you lose sight of that day. This team doesn't do that, so I know we'll be able to wash this and then put our best foot forward tomorrow."