Urías hits tie-breaking home run and Orioles hang on for 7-5 win (updated)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Orioles manager Brandon Hyde knew that the Rays would use right-hander Drew Rasmussen as an opener tonight and left-hander Tyler Alexander was prepped to follow. He knows that ace Corbin Burnes gives his club a chance to win anytime the four-time All-Star is on the mound.

What couldn’t be predicted was the manner in which the rest of the game played out. How Ramón Urías, the ninth hitter in the lineup, would impact it.

The fifth inning bit Burnes again but he registered his 19^th quality start and the Orioles carried a slim lead into the seventh, where it disappeared on José Caballero’s game-tying home run off Burch Smith. Perhaps a situation fitted for Jacob Webb if he didn’t land on the injured list.

Jackson Holliday, who hit his first left-on-left homer in the majors earlier in the game, drew a leadoff walk against lefty Colin Poche in the eighth, Hyde stuck with Urías rather than going to his bench, and the infielder rewarded him with a two-run homer in the Orioles’ 7-5 win over the Rays before an announced crowd of 23,898 at Tropicana Field.

The Yankees split their doubleheader with the Rangers, leaving the Orioles (70-48) one game ahead in the division race. They’re the first team to 70 wins.

"I still don’t think we’re playing our best baseball," Burnes said. "I think that kind of showed a little bit there tonight. They came back and made that a pretty good game. I think we could have ran away with another one there. Before we can scoreboard watch, I think we need to take care of business and get back to playing our best baseball. I think we’re close. But I think until that happens, we need to focus internally first."

Yennier Cano left two runners on base for Cionel Pérez with two outs in the eighth, and Dylan Carlson and pinch-hitter Jose Siri walked to force in a run before Caballero flied out. Seranthony Domínguez recorded his first save with the Orioles. Craig Kimbrel's last save was July 7.

“I’m just trying to get Kimbrel going a little bit. But sure you’ll see him in there tomorrow," Hyde said. "He got in a little bit of a rough patch and I don’t want to put the pressure on him. But tomorrow I might have to. We have a lot of faith in Craig. Like I said, he should have made the All-Star team. Seranthony’s been throwing the ball great and he did again tonight.”

Urías singled back in the second inning and launched a 92-mph fastball 418 feet to left-center field for his sixth homer of the season. Ryan Mountcastle’s third single later in the inning, on a ball that deflected off Poche, scored Colton Cowser to provide some insurance.

"I love the defense, so not really a hunch, just wanted to keep him in the game," Hyde said of his decision to let Urías hit. "He came through in a big way. Huge homer for us.”

“I’m just looking fastball middle-middle," Urías said. "I mean, he has a lot of percentage on his fastball and I got one middle-middle right there.”

More playing time has come to Urías due to injuries and the Connor Norby trade, after it appeared that he might get squeezed off the roster.

“I just gotta compete," he said. "It’s not like it’s given to me. I still have to perform on the field and help the team win.”

Holliday started the rally with his nine-pitch walk, which Hyde called "one of the biggest ABs of the game."

"Left-on-left, drawing the walk, good at-bat to bring Ramón up there in that situation," Hyde said. "Nice to see him hit a homer earlier and then a great at-bat there to lead off the inning.”

Said Holliday: “Just talking to the guys in the dugout, Gunnar (Henderson) and the hitting coaches, trying to understand what he has, the over the top heater and the short slider. Guys like that I feel pretty comfortable with, just pulling them in and looking for the heater. Once I saw the slider, it felt a lot more comfortable.”

“I’m so happy for him," Urías said. "He’s helping the team a lot, and of course he’s good for us.”

A three-run first inning increased the Orioles’ total to 22 since the break. Adley Rutschman had an RBI double and Mountcastle followed with a two-run single.

Holliday greeted Alexander in the second with a 408-foot shot to right field at 104.4 mph, the rookie’s fourth homer in six games. He’s 9-for-31 this month.

"I faced that guy a few times in Triple-A, so I have a little bit of an idea how he liked to work, and to put a good swing on it was nice," he said. “I’m not trying to hit homers. I’m just trying to hit the ball hard on the barrel. When that happens, obviously seem to be good outcomes. Just trying to hit the ball hard and wherever it goes, it just happens to be going over the fence at a pretty high rate right now.”

Burnes allowed three runs and four hits in six innings but was denied a 13^th win that could have tied him for the major league lead. All of the hits and runs came in the fifth.

"Really not that much different," he said of the troublesome inning. "We had a good plan, we were attacking, getting a lot of weak contact, a lot of swing and miss early. And then the fifth, a couple weak hits. Of the four hits, I think one ball was considered a hard-hit ball, so still did a great job of getting weak contact. They were just in places that we couldn’t get to."

Thirteen of the first 14 Rays were retired, with No. 9 hitter Alex Jackson drawing a walk. Brandon Lowe led off the fourth with a 107.7 mph line drive to Holliday and Carlson began the fifth with a 100.5 mph liner to Mountcastle. Josh Lowe followed with a single into left-center and Caballero reached on an infield hit, with Urías unable to make the barehand pickup.

The Rays stole two bases in the inning and Lowe scored on Rutschman’s throwing error on a pitch-out. Two-out doubles by Alex Jackson and Jonny DeLuca cut the lead to 4-3.

 “Four-plus innings no-hit. He had great stuff going," Hyde said.

Burnes has permitted 33 stolen bases this season in 37 attempts, among the highest totals in club history. He usually gets away with it.

“We’ve just got to do a little bit better job of managing it," Hyde said. "People are starting to be really aggressive on him and have been. Just got to do a little bit better job holding runners.”

"The minute I take too much focus away is when I break down mechanically," Burnes said. "I start walking guys and putting more guys on base. I know that when things are kind of going right I can kind of be a little quicker and control the running game when I need to. Obviously, they’re an aggressive team and they’re going to run. Tonight, opportunities they had to run, they did just because they happened to be in counts that I was locked in on trying to get a strike and trying to get ahead of hitters.

"I think we had the pitch-out on and could’ve gotten a guy at second and just didn’t get him. That’s something I’m going to see more and more of, especially when we get to postseason, so I’ve just got to do a good job of putting myself in good spots to help slow it down a little bit."

The damage came after the Orioles put two runners in scoring position with no outs in the top half of the inning and came up empty. Gunnar Henderson singled for the second time and Rutschman delivered his second double. Two more runners reached in the sixth on Cowser’s two-out double and Anthony Santander’s walk, but again, nothing more materialized after Lowe’s diving stop and throw to rob Henderson.

"We had a chance there in that fifth to kind of break the game open," Hyde said. "We had second and third and nobody out and didn’t score. That’s giving them a little momentum it seemed like.”

Cowser finished with three hits after having his left wrist wrapped due to “a little nerve deal,” as Hyde described it last night.

Burnes has surrendered 18 runs in the fifth inning this season. The next highest total is nine in the second.

"I had no idea until you just told me," he said. "It could just be that’s when we’re flipping the order over and getting to the middle of the order second time through and then making an adjustment, and we’re just not making an adjustment quick enough. Or we’re just not executing pitches. It might be something we’re digging into, but I think, more importantly, we’re just not making good pitches in those counts or, like tonight, they’re weak contact."

Tonight gave Burnes a chance to atone for his poorest outing with the Orioles, when he allowed five runs (four earned) over five innings in Cleveland. He was much sharper in the early stages tonight. The Rays felt it.

Burnes’ sinker was clocking 99 mph. More bad news for opponents if he’s getting stronger.

"I think it’s more of we’re just a lot cleaner mechanically than probably the last two or three years," he said. "I kind of find the right time to step on the gas a little bit more, and I guess it’s been more so lately than all season. I felt great out here. I’ve felt better now than I was in March. Yeah, we’re pretty clean mechanically, and when I need to, I can get a little more."

Hyde wrote out a lineup that included right-handed hitting Austin Slater, which appeared in direct response to Alexander’s expected use in bulk relief. But Eloy Jiménez sat, with Santander serving as designated hitter.

“You kind of predict what’s going to happen from how (manager Kevin Cash) is going to use the pitching staff today,” Hyde said earlier.

The Orioles nailed it and they spiked the Rays, improving to 8-1 against them and 6-0 at The Trop despite leaving 12 runners on base.

Their 183 home runs already match last year's total.

“We’ve hit a lot," Hyde said. "I like rallies, too, so the way we started the game off swinging the bat against a really tough pitcher in Rasmussen, a lot of base hits the other way. It was just really, really good at-bats there in the first inning. Score three runs off a quality pitcher like that without the homer. That’s just as important. We can beat you in a lot of ways.

"We do hit homers, but it’s nice to see us get a bunch of base hits the other way and keep the rally going.”

* J.D. Davis hit his first home run with Triple-A Norfolk, a two-run shot in the third inning. Shayne Fontana hit a game-tying, two-run homer in the seventh.

Left-hander Cade Povich allowed four runs and eight hits in seven innings.