Six homers help Rays to doubleheader split vs. Orioles

Nate Lowe and Michael Brosseau each homered twice, and the visiting Tampa Bay Rays finished with six home runs while earning a split of their Saturday doubleheader with a 12-4 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. The blowout victory came after Baltimore won the opener 2-1.

The Orioles stayed busy between games by trading right-hander Andrew Cashner to the Red Sox in exchange for outfielder Elio Prado and infielder Noelberth Romero. Both are 17 years old and will be assigned to the Dominican Summer League. The Rays showed their power in the nightcap, touching up Baltimore starter John Means (7-5) for three of the six homers. Lowe finished with four RBIs while Brosseau drove in three more as the Rays had 15 hits.

Tampa Bay starter Charlie Morton (11-2) gave up two runs in his six innings and struck out six. The right-hander, who was an American League All-Star, has won three straight games, two of which have come vs. Baltimore. Means, also an All-Star, gave up six runs on eight hits in six innings, striking out four.

The Rays jumped in front early when Brosseau hit a two-run homer to left in the second. Brousseau has three homers this season and two have come against Means. Yandy Diaz then made it 3-0 with a solo shot to left in the fourth, his 12th.

Baltimore got some help from Stevie Wilkerson in the bottom of that inning. With the bases loaded and two outs, he lined a two-run single to right that cut the lead to 3-2. The Rays then broke it open with three runs off Means in the sixth inning and three more against David Hess in the seventh. In the sixth, Avisail Garcia drove in a run with a single, and he scored on the first Lowe homer.

One inning later, against Hess, Tommy Pham hit a two-run homer, his 15th. Garcia added a sacrifice fly to give Tampa Bay a 9-2 lead. Lowe and Brosseau added their second homers in the ninth as the Rays scored three more. Lowe has five home runs this season.

 

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