The Orioles are shutout in series opener with Tampa Bay

The Orioles have struggled to hit this year against the Tampa Bay pitching staff and that trend continued tonight. The Orioles were blanked 2-0 by Tampa Bay as Matt Moore and a trio of relievers teamed up to keep the Orioles off the scoreboard. The Orioles were shutout for the eighth time this year. It was a rather frustrating night for the Orioles' offense as they went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 men on base. Mark Reynolds was called out on strikes with the bases loaded to end the top of the first and he was also called out on strikes with two men on the eighth. The Orioles went 0-for-15 with runners in scoring position on Wednesday at New York. Coming into this series the Orioles had scored 41 runs over their past seven games with 27 extra-base hits and a team batting average of .311 in that span. The Rays hit two solo homers off Tommy Hunter and that was enough for victory. B.J. Upton homered in the fourth and Desmond Jennings in the sixth. It was Upton's 100th career homer and also came on a night when his brother Justin hit his 100th for Arizona. Hunter took the loss to fall to 4-7 with an ERA of 5.55. He gave up six hits over 5 2/3 with one walk and three strikeouts. With this loss, the Orioles fall to 3-4 on this road trip, 4-6 against Tampa Bay and 55-51 on the year. The Rays move a game ahead of the Orioles and into second place.