The rookies took the mound, but O's got swept in doubleheader

Who could blame left-hander Bruce Zimmermann if there were some nerves when he took the mound in the first inning tonight. He was not only making his big league debut, but doing it for his hometown team. Doing it on the same mound where he once pitched in the Brooks Robinson High School All-Star Game in 2013.

And Zimmermann fell behind 3-0 after his first major league inning. He overthrew a slider and hit the second batter he faced, then walked the third, not getting some close pitches. Then he made a mistake and Rays shortstop Willy Adames hit a high changeup just over the wall in left for a three-run home run. It was No. 6 for Adames, who lined the ball 368 feet into the stands. Zimmermann steadied after that to get a strikeout to end his first inning in the bigs.

He pitched a scoreless second, but allowed a leadoff homer to Hunter Renfroe in the third. That shot, Renfroe's eighth homer, went 389 feet and gave Tampa Bay a 4-2 lead.

Playing as the visitor in Game 2, the Orioles scored four runs in the top of the fourth to gain a 6-4 lead. But Zimmermann was pulled when he allowed a leadoff single in the Rays fourth. It was not an outing to rival recent ones from rookies Keegan Akin and Dean Kremer, but Zimmermann gives the O's a third rookie in the rotation and the kids are getting their shots as the days remaining in the 2020 season dwindle.

Travis Lakins Sr. replaced Zimmermann and allowed an inherited runner to score when he gave up Joey Wendle's two-run homer to tie the game at 6-6.

The Rays scored four runs in the last of the fifth to break that tie and beat the Orioles 10-6 to sweep the doubleheader. Tampa Bay, which improved to 33-18, clinched an American League playoff berth.

As for his final numbers, Zimmermann went three innings plus a batter, allowing four hits and five runs with one walk, two strikeouts and two home runs. He threw 53 pitches, 32 for strikes, and left a few too many up in the zone to mar his game.

That outing ended a run of recent solid starting pitching by the Orioles. In Game 1 tonight, which was won 3-1 by Tampa Bay, right-hander Kremer allowed three hits and one run over five innings. So he has now thrown five innings or more, allowing one run or less and recorded at least six strikeouts in each of his first three major league starts. He did not get a decision, but has an ERA of 1.69 after three games.

Tampa Bay pushed two runs across in the seventh against right-hander César Valdez to break a 1-1 tie. Down 1-0 in the sixth, Ryan Mountcastle's single produced his 20th RBI and a 1-1 tie.

Through Kremer's Game 1 outing, O's starting pitchers had allowed one earned run or less in five of their previous six games with an ERA of 1.72 in that span. They had allowed one earned run or less in nine of the past 13 games, with an ERA of 3.14

If you combined Akin and Kremer's seven major league starts with the last two by John Means and the recent seven-inning, one-run outing by Jorge López, you get an ERA of 1.61 over 10 starts.

But the pitching got away from the Orioles, and so did the defense, in the second game as they fall to 22-29. The Orioles have lost eight of 10 games.