Hart gets shot as bullpen lefty and the Rays are still struggling

There has been a bit of a shuttle going on in recent days in the Orioles bullpen as the club works to find another left-hander to join Zach Britton and also fresh arms to help keep the 'pen from being overused.

Just in the last several days before the All-Star break, we saw Ariel Miranda, Jayson Aquino and Jason Garcia make their way onto the Orioles roster.

Now comes 25-year-old left-hander Donnie Hart, a sidearming southpaw who has never made his way onto those top prospects lists, but tonight will make his way onto a big league roster. Not bad for a 27th-round draft choice in 2013, a pitcher taken with the 819th overall selection.

This year for Double-A Bowie, Hart is 2-0 with a 2.31 ERA in 33 games. He's allowed 34 hits in 39 innings with seven walks and 43 strikeouts. Left-handers are batting .158 against Hart this year and right-handers are hitting .284.

Hart was also very good against left-handed batters in 2015 when he went 5-1 with a 1.03 ERA for Single-A Frederick. For the Keys, lefties hit just .095 with a .119 slugging percentage off Hart and right-handed batters hit .265. Hart pitched in the Arizona Fall League after that 2015 season, going 1-0 with a 4.82 ERA in eight games.

I recently talked to Britton about the lack of a second bullpen lefty and whether at that time he might be looking at some one-inning plus saves. He said he could do that but also that the current bullpen situation provided a great chance for someone from organization to grab hold of a roster spot.

"We've talked about doing inning-plus saves and it's not something I've had an issue with," Britton said. "It would obviously be nice to get a lefty here to bring into the game a little earlier. It does kind of handcuff us to an extent.

"At the same time you won't put a lefty there just to have one. We've got righties that can get lefties out. I think the only way you go along without that is if you have right handers that can get both out.

"But this is a good opportunity for somebody in the organization to step up. You think of those young guys down in the minors, the left-handed pitchers, and there is an opportunity. You don't how often you will get an opportunity. My advice to them would be take it and run with it."

For his career, Hart is 12-6 with a 2.27 ERA in 125 games, all in relief. He has allowed just two homers in 146 2/3 innings and none since 2014. His career walk rate is 2.52 per every nine innings and his strikeout rate is 8.96 with a WHIP of 1.15.

Rays struggling: Maybe the better question is what is the matter with the Rays? This perennial American League East contender hosts the Orioles tonight as a last place team at 34-54.

When the Orioles swept a four-game series from Tampa Bay in Baltimore back on June 24-26, the Rays' losing streak had reached 11 games. The Orioles outscored them 31-14 in recording their first-ever four-game sweep of Tampa Bay.

Tonight the Rays begin the second half hosting the Orioles and they have lost six in a row and 10 of 11 games. Since June 16, the Rays are 3-22. In that time their team ERA is 5.99 and their bullpen ERA is 7.84. Before this stretch, those numbers were 4.03 and 3.63.

The Orioles are 7-2 against Tampa Bay this year, winning five in a row. They faced a floundering Rays team a few weeks ago and the Rays are still floundering.

Can the O's take advantage of the still-slumping Rays to get off to a fast start in the second half?