Orioles pitching surrenders five homers in 13-6 loss (updated)

Matt Harvey stood with his back turned to home plate and his right hand on his hip tonight as Austin Meadows' ball sailed over the center field fence for the second three-run homer of the second inning.

The second-shortest start of his major league career was happening before his eyes. He had to look. Though perhaps in disbelief.

A bloop single by Brandon Lowe with two outs brought manager Brandon Hyde out of the dugout. The Rays were dinking Harvey to death, too, but it didn't hurt as much as the two killer shots that put the Orioles behind by six runs.

Stevie Wilkerson marked his return to the majors with two hits and an RBI, but the Orioles began the series with a 13-6 loss before an announced crowd of 5,429 at Camden Yards.

The Orioles are 17-24 overall and 6-16 at home, but they avoided the use of a position player on the mound - which seemed like a real possibility early, especially with Wilkerson on the roster.

"It's been really frustrating," Trey Mancini said in his Zoom call. "I feel like a lot of time we're just not synced up. Sometimes offensively we're on when the pitchers are having a tough night and a lot of times they're on and we don't do our part. I think it's just been unfortunate trying to sync that up. But I know we can right the ship. There are going to be times like this in a season and I'm still so confident with all the guys we have in there and our personnel and I know we can turn it around."

The Rays sent 10 batters to the plate in the second, with Rule 5 pick Tyler Wells striking out Yandy Díaz to strand an inherited runner. Harvey was charged with six runs and seven hits in 1 2/3 innings and his night ended at 59 pitches.

The competitive side of it expired sooner.

Brett Phillips hit a three-run shot with one out, the ball bouncing on the flag court, after back-to-back singles by Díaz and Joey Wendle. Willy Adames doubled on a ball that ricocheted off third base, Randy Arozarena reached on a dribbler up the third base line and Meadows launched a 91 mph fastball.

Harvey surrendered three home runs in his first eight starts with the Orioles.

"He gave up a couple of those homers. Besides that, once again, a lot of soft contact hits that they're just getting enough of the bat on get through and getting some outfield grass," Hyde said.

"Worked hard obviously for those two innings. The lineout and two homers were well hit, but besides that once again just a lot of soft-contact singles."

The Rays weren't done mashing after Harvey left. Wendle led off the third with a triple, the ball scooting inside first base and hugging the line, and Mike Zunino homered for an 8-0 lead.

Zunino added a two-run shot off Travis Lakins Sr. in the fifth to give Tampa Bay a 10-4 lead and Ji-Man Choi hit a two-run homer off Shawn Armstrong in the eighth.

Tonight marked the beginning of a stretch of 16 games in a row without a break. The bullpen is vulnerable and the Triple-A shuttle always is gassed up.

Harvey has allowed 13 runs and 15 hits in his last two starts over six innings to inflate his ERA to 5.93. He hasn't exceeded 4 1/3 in his last three.

"Going four or less innings as a starter is completely unacceptable," Harvey said, "and giving up as many runs as I have the last three games is extremely unacceptable."

"When he's pitching well, he's missing bats and he's riding that sinker in on right-handers," Hyde said. "I thought he had a good changeup tonight. He needs to throw that more to left-handed hitters. Didn't throw many curveballs tonight. Threw a lot of sliders I thought he was missing to extension side. He just wasn't real sharp."

The only start shorter in Harvey's career game with the Royals on Sept. 1, 2020, when the Indians scored five runs in 1 1/3 innings. He surrendered three homers. Harvey endured a brutal night against the Twins on May 23, 2019, when he allowed eight runs - including four homers - in 2 2/3 while pitching for the Angels.

The Astros collected seven runs and eight hits over two innings in the first game of a Sept. 1, 2017 doubleheader during Harvey's Mets career.

"I didn't really feel comfortable from the beginning," Harvey said. "Kind of got into some old habits mechanically and gave up some soft hits, and then obviously with runner on, I gave up two hard ones that cost us the game. I've got some work to do this week mechanically and kind of go back to square one and figure it out so this doesn't happen again."

Wilkerson, the 35th player used by the Orioles this season, led off the third inning with a double for his first major league hit since Sept. 28, 2019 in Boston. Cedric Mullins singled to extend his hitting streak to 11 games and put runners on the corners against Luis Patiño, and Austin Hays singled to reduce the lead to 8-1.

Back at the plate with two runners on base in the fourth, Wilkerson lined a run-scoring single into right field and moved to second base on a wild pitch. Wilkerson's first RBI since Sept. 21, 2019. His first multi-hit game since going 4-for-6 on Sept. 23 in Toronto.

Patiño hit Mullins with one out to load the bases and bring Andrew Kittredge into the game. Both starters were gone before the completion of four full innings.

Hays bounced into a force to score Chance Sisco, who reached on an infield hit, and Mancini's single reduced the lead to 8-4. Mancini has 33 RBIs, including 16 this month that moved him past Houston's Yuli Gurriel for the most this month.

Mancini credited his hot month in part to the book, "The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance" by Timothy Gallwey, that hitting coach Don Long gave to him.

"I'm really trying to just work on the mental side of the game a lot. It's an everlasting process," he said.

Lakins issued two walks to open the sixth and Lowe had an RBI single. Cole Sulser stranded two runners and tossed 1 2/3 scoreless and hitless innings.

DJ Stewart (two hits) and Pat Valaika had run-scoring singles in the ninth.

Wells struck out six batters in 2 1/3 innings.

"After the homer, I thought he was great," Hyde said.

Down on the farm, Richie Martin started in center field tonight for Triple-A Norfolk and came out of the game after two at-bats with left wrist pain. He crashed into the fence on Jesús Sánchez's inside-the-park home run in the fourth inning and collapsed on the warning track.

Martin will undergo follow-up testing in the next 24 hours.

Martin missed the 2020 season with a fractured wrist and underwent surgery in January to remove a broken hamate bone.

Infielder Jahmai Jones (oblique) and outfielder Yusniel Diaz (hip/quad) already are on the injured list.