Homers and errors work against Wells in 7-2 loss to Rays (updated)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Rays hurt Tyler Wells today in the second inning.

Wells also hurt himself.

Ganging up on the right-hander prevented the Orioles from sweeping the two-game series.

Randy Arozarena and Isaac Paredes hit back-to-back home runs to begin the inning, Wells committed two errors that led to a pair of unearned runs, and Tampa Bay defeated the Orioles 7-2 before an announced crowd of 19,493 at Tropicana Field.

The Orioles managed only three hits until Gunnar Henderson's leadoff homer in the ninth and fell to 45-28 with their third loss in five games and fourth in seven. They’re five games behind the Rays again in the American League East.

"We didn't play very well today and those games are going to happen," said manager Brandon Hyde. "Tyler's been amazing for us all season. Just didn't have his best start. We didn't get much going offensively today."

Arozarena was quiet against the Orioles in 2023, but today marked his 16^th career homer in 42 games. He came within a triple of the cycle.

Wells was burned by a 91.4 mph fastball to Arozarena that registered 104.5 mph off the bat and traveled 402 feet to left-center field. Paredes pulled a cutter over the short fence in left for a 2-0 lead.

Twenty-four of the first 31 runs against Wells came on homers, and he was early into today’s start.

Manuel Margot bounced to the mound and Wells misplayed the ball for his first error. He walked Taylor Walls, both runners advanced on Christian Bethancourt's fly ball to center – Aaron Hicks tried for the out at third base rather than holding Walls at first - and Wells fielded José Siri’s roller and fired the ball over Ramón Urías’ head.

Wells threw 15 pitches in the first but 39 in the second as Logan Gillaspie began to warm.

"It's incredibly frustrating," Wells said. "I think you could probably put that entire loss on my back. As a starter I'm supposed to go out there and I'm supposed to set the pace of play, and that second inning, I can live with the solo homers, and one of them I didn't even think was going out. But it's the physical error and the mental error that really haunt me on that. Those are things that are just completely unacceptable, and I think it set a really bad example and pace of play for the other guys.

"This one's on me."

David Hess was the last Orioles pitcher to commit two errors in an inning, on Sept. 2, 2018, per STATS. Tyler Wilson also was guilty in 2016, Matt Riley in 2004 and Scott Erickson in 2002.

Hess also was the last to be charged with two in a game. Jake Arrieta joins that group in 2012.

Wells was most frustrated by the errant throw and how he tried to do too much.

"You sit there and you want to continually try to improve on the situation that you're given, and sometimes, the way that it played out in my head was, I was running to the ball, told myself not to throw it, not to throw it, not to throw it," he said. "I see him halfway down the line and I'm like, 'Oh, I've got him,' and you make a bad throw. Sometimes, it unfolds that fast.

"It was a bad mental error, but you know what? I'm just going to kind of look at the positive here and understand that I'm going to be better next time for it and I'm going to make sure that I don't make that mistake again."

"He is a good fielding pitcher, too," Hyde said. "Just a couple plays that's uncharacteristic that he didn't make. Just a real bad thing for us there."

Wells didn't achieve a clean inning until the fifth, but he stranded Arozarena after walking him in the third and picked off Walls after a leadoff single in the fourth.

Two strikeouts completed the fourth with Wells at 83 pitches. He threw 12 more while retiring the side in order in the fifth.

The three walks tied a season high.

"Definitely was fighting a lot of control issues," Wells said. "Our assistant pitching coach (Darren Holmes) came up to me and told me one small cue that we've been working on, and it actually helped me a lot, especially after that second inning. I was a little tired, but because of that little cue, he definitely got me back on track."

"He doesn't usually walk people and just thought he was coming out of his delivery a little bit," Hyde said. "Just didn't really have his command early in the game. I thought he threw well the last three innings. He made a little bit of a mechanical adjustment, got more in the strike zone, more in line. I thought his stuff improved after that inning."

Two of the four runs were unearned against Wells, who has a 3.22 ERA and 0.89 WHIP in 15 appearances. Orioles starters have surrendered three earned or fewer in 21 of 22 games.

“They’ve kept us in games,” Hyde said earlier today. “We’ve had a little bit of trouble in kind of that sixth, seventh inning range, but our starters have done a great job of doing everything they can to keep us in the baseball game.”

Urías led off the third with a 416-foot home run to center field off Taj Bradley, the exit velocity registering at 109.2 mph, and Henderson greeted Zach Littell with a 437-foot shot to center field at 110.3 mph, but a 26^th comeback win wasn’t happening today.

The Orioles broke a streak of 15 straight series losses in St. Petersburg, last night’s win guaranteeing at least a split. But they wanted the sweep, which would have been their fifth this season and first at The Trop since May 2014.

Ryan O’Hearn singled leading off the second inning for his 15^th hit in his last 29 at-bats over nine games. Bradley retired 10 in a row after Urías’ home run, the streak broken by Henderson’s opposite-field single with one out in the sixth.

Bradley went a career-high six innings in his 10^th major league start, allowing one run and three hits with no walks and eight strikeouts.

"He's got a really good fastball but he threw a ton of off-speed against us, and a really good changeup," Hyde said. "Good changeup, good cutter. He's got a good arm and we had a tough time scoring runs against him."

"It was a good curveball, sharp," said Austin Hays, who went 0-for-3 to end his streak of five straight multi-hit games. "He was using that cutter to both sides of the plate. He was throwing strikes early in counts and throwing some wipeout stuff with two strikes, so we just had a hard time stringing together some hits against him.

"You do all the scouting reports beforehand, but until you're in the box, really seeing how the ball's moving and how they're trying to attack you, there's adjustments that have to be made in the game. So, just feel like he had a good game plan against us today, and he did a good job working his pitches to both sides of the plate. Threw a lot of strikes. We just didn't adjust fast enough to what he was doing."

Keegan Akin struck out two batters in the sixth to strand the two runners he inherited from Gillaspie, but the left-hander allowed two runs in the seventh on Wander Franco’s sacrifice fly and Arozarena’s single.

Hyde wanted to stay away from some of his relievers today, though he wouldn’t provide names and tip off the Rays. No one is asking for a day off. That’s the mentality. Take the ball until it isn’t offered.

“There’s a lot of guys in there that I’ve had to say, ‘I’m not going to throw you tonight,’” Hyde said. “They want to pitch, and nobody’s complaining about the workload. It’s been pretty heavy. And I get it, I understand. Love to have these guys for six months.

“We’re trying to win. There’s no doubt. Everybody in there is trying to win, and guys understand how important certain games are. They’re trying to win every single night, so give them a lot of credit for trying to post every night.”

* Two off-days allow Hyde to toy with the rotation, and the Orioles are listing their weekend starters as Kyle Gibson, Dean Kremer and TBA. Cole Irvin, Gibson and Kremer were lined up.

Irvin struck out two batters today in the eighth but permitted a run on Yandy Díaz's RBI single.

"He was actually in the 'pen all series for a long relief role," Hyde said. "We're going to give him a start here at some point in the next few days, but just wanted to give him an inning there."

Seattle is starting right-handers Logan Gilbert, Bryce Miller and George Kirby.

* Adley Rutschman caught a day game following a night game, which kept Anthony Bemboom on the bench. The backup usually gets into the lineup, with Rutschman serving as designated hitter or joining the reserves and waiting to pinch-hit.

Rutschman has played in 71 of 73 games.

“Special circumstance,” Hyde said. “Off-day before the series and an off-day tomorrow. Normally, we’d hate to do that, but it’s a little different this time around.”