O's game blog: The series finale against Tampa Bay

O's lefty Bruce Zimmermann will try to pitch the Orioles to a win this afternoon at Tropicana Field. The Birds have won his last two starts and need a victory today to avoid being swept by the Tampa Bay Rays and extending their club record road losing streak to 15 games.

Zimmermann (4-3, 4.83 ERA) will be making his 11th start. The Orioles are 3-7 in the first 10 but 2-0 in the last two, versus Minnesota and the New York Mets. In those games he allowed four runs and eight hits over 10 1/3 innings. Zimmermann has allowed two earned runs or fewer in four of his past five starts, and in that span is 3-0 with a 4.13 ERA, allowing 23 hits in 24 innings with seven walks to 28 strikeouts.

Zimmermann is using his secondary pitches a combined 57 percent of the time and his fastball just 43 percent. Sometimes he can pitch backwards and start hitters with the off-speed and later work in his fastball. And while batters have hit .436 against his fastball they are batting just .230 off his changeup, .200 against his slider and .152 off his curveball. And he has a whiff rate (swings divided by swings and misses) of 41.4 percent against his slider and 48.2 against his curveball. The breaking pitches have been nice swing-and-miss and putaway pitches for him.

Austin Wynns, who is starting behind the plate again, hit his first career grand slam yesterday, and it was his first big league homer since Sept, 24, 2019 at Toronto. The grand slam marked Baltimore's second of the year after Ryan Mountcastle hit one on May 22 at Washington off lefty Jon Lester.

It was the 27th grand slam by an O's backstop in club history and the first since Pedro Severino on Aug. 24, 2019 against the Rays at Oriole Park. Chris Hoiles has the most career grand slams by an O's catcher with seven, while Orioles Hall of Fame first baseman Eddie Murray holds the overall club record with 16. Wynns is the seventh O's batter to connect on a grand slam from the ninth spot in the lineup, and the first since Brian Roberts on Aug. 23, 2013 versus Oakland.

But the O's have scored just six runs in this series, all coming via a home run. They are 9-for-62 at-bat this weekend with one double, two homers and a .200 batting average (1-for-5) when hitting with runners in scoring position. Not a lot of scoring chances to be found in the first two games at the Trop.

Trey Mancini leads the club with 12 homers and 47 RBIs. He also leads the team with 22 barrels, tied for the 17th-most in the majors. His 12.5 barrel percentage ranks in the 78th percentile of the big leagues, according to Statcast, and his 44.9 hard-hit percentage ranks in the 68th percentile. Mancini is batting a team-best .366 with runners in scoring position and batting .400 (8-for-20) with RISP and two outs. His 26 hits with RISP are the most in the majors.

Right-hander Michael Wacha (1-1, 4.54 ERA) will be making his 11th outing and seventh start this afternoon. For the year, he has thrown 37 2/3 innings, allowing 35 hits and six homers with 10 walks and 30 strikeouts. He has a WHIP of 1.195 with 2.4 walks and 7.2 strikeouts. The Rays are 4-2 in his starts.

In his six starts only, he is 1-1 with a 3.08 ERA and 1.101 WHIP while he recorded an ERA of 7.94 in four bullpen games. Wacha is 0-0 with a 6.14 ERA in four home games, one start at the Trop.