Gunnar Henderson hit the first of his two home runs in Baltimore’s five-run first inning as the Orioles beat the visiting Tampa Bay Rays 11-2 on Wednesday night to complete a three-game sweep against the team with the best record in the American League.
Rookie Trey Gibson took a shutout into the sixth inning to gain his first victory.
Blaze Alexander drove in six runs with a single, double and home run, Coby Mayo scored three runs and Adley Rutschman added three hits, including two doubles.
Henderson’s two-run shot in the first inning opened the scoring and he drilled a solo blast to lead off the sixth. Alexander, in the No. 8 spot in the batting order, clobbered a two-run homer in the seventh.
Baltimore’s first five batters of the game scored off Tampa Bay starter Steven Matz (4-2). Leody Taveras rapped a run-scoring single and Alexander had a two-run single.
Hunter Feduccia had three hits and Jonathan Aranda posted two hits for the Rays, who’ve lost four games in a row for the first time this season.
Gibson (1-0), who was placed back on the roster earlier in the day as the Orioles slightly shuffled their rotation, worked 5 2/3 innings and gave up one run and six hits and four walks. He struck out one.
The Rays grounded into three double plays across the first five innings.
Matz was charged with six runs on seven hits in three innings.
The Orioles pushed their lead to 6-0 in the third on Tyler O’Neill’s single. Alexander’s two-run double in the fifth added to the margin.
The Rays used Hunter Bigge and Jonathan Heasley, who allowed two runs in his first inning and one more in his next inning, in relief. In his first appearance of the season, Heasley was tagged for five runs on eight hits over four innings.
Tampa Bay loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth and managed only one run on Ryan Vilade’s walk before three straight strikeouts ended the threat.
