Guthrie's strong outing leads the Orioles over Tampa Bay

With a strong outing tonight, Jeremy Guthrie got a win over Tampa Bay. He also tied his career high in strikeouts and failed to set a new career high in losses. Guthrie led the Orioles to a 6-2 win over the Rays, who could have closed to within three games of Boston for the wild card with a victory.

Guthrie, now 8-17 with an ERA of 4.22, gave up just three hits and two runs over seven innings. He walked three and fanned 10 for the third time in his career. Guthrie threw 112 pitches, 72 for strikes. Guthrie got into two big jams in the game, one he got out of and one he did not. The Rays took advantage of his two walks in the fourth and both scored on a Matt Joyce two-run double. The first two Rays reached in the seventh on a walk and single. But Guthrie got two strikeouts around a fly out to end that threat. Guthrie is likely to have just two starts left and that now makes him most unlikely to have a 20-loss season. Jim Johnson pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth to record his sixth save. Nolan Reimold's solo homer in the third, his 10th of the year, gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead. After Tampa Bay's two-run fourth, the Orioles went ahead in the last of the inning. With one out, Vlad Guerrero reached on an infield single and went to third on a Matt Wieters' double. They both scored when Chris Davis hit an 0-2 pitch out to left field for a 4-2 lead. It was his second Orioles homer and ended a 14-game homerless stretch. Wieters provided some insurance with a two-run homer in the eighth off one of the game's best pitching prospects, lefty Matt Moore, who was making his major league debut. It was Wieters' third homer in three games and 20th on the year. With the win, the Orioles evened the season series at nine wins each and the all-time series at 120 wins each. The clubs split six series on the season. The Orioles are off on Thursday before they host the Angels over the weekend at Camden Yards.