A little turnabout drops O's back into first-place tie

ST. PETERSBURG -- Less than 24 hours after the Orioles moved into sole possession of first place in the American League East, the Rays immediately rebounded and pulled back even atop the standings by handing the O’s a 3-0 loss Friday night at Tropicana Field.

This could be the back-and-forth nature of the tight race between Baltimore (59-38) and Tampa Bay (61-40), which may not be decided until the regular season ends on Oct. 1.

The second matchup in the four-game series between the top two teams in the AL brought a reversal of recent trends. While the Orioles lost for only the third time in their past 13 games, the Rays notched their fourth win over their past 16 contests.

“Teams are going to get hot like that. Teams are going to get cold,” Baltimore outfielder Aaron Hicks said. “It’s just kind of the way baseball is. Everybody likes to say it all evens out in the end, but I think whoever wins the close games stays competitive and, ultimately, gets the results they want in the end.”

Although the Orioles lost their latest tight contest, they’ve routinely proven they can win similar games, hence their 17-9 record in one-run affairs. And on Friday, they surely pitched well enough to beat the challenging Rays.

Right-hander Kyle Bradish continued his recent terrific stretch by tossing six quality innings. He allowed only two runs, which scored via a Harold Ramírez RBI single in the second and an Isaac Paredes solo home run in the sixth.

Over Bradish’s past seven starts, he has a 1.62 ERA. The 26-year-old has gone six or more innings and allowed two or fewer runs in six of those outings, including each of his past five. He attributed the success to his exceptional fastball command, his ability to throw multiple breaking pitches for strikes and his low walk totals (one or none in four of his past seven starts).

“I think it’s been a good little stretch,” Bradish said. “Obviously, I would have liked a different outcome today. The home run just kind of irritated me. Just can’t really happen right there in the sixth inning when the guy on the other side is dealing like he was.”

The opposing starter was Tampa Bay’s Zach Eflin, who never let Baltimore mount much of a rally. The 29-year-old right-hander allowed only two hits and one walk while striking out eight over seven breezy innings that required him to throw only 87 pitches (63 strikes).

On the night, 27 of the Orioles’ 31 batters were retired. Their only baserunner after Eflin’s departure was Adley Rutschman, who drew his second walk of the game with one out in the ninth. The team’s final eight outs were all strikeouts, and the O’s fanned 14 total times.

“[Eflin] was definitely sharp tonight,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “He was using both sides of the plate, getting balls down for strikes. He didn’t leave a whole lot of balls in the middle part of the plate for us. We just had a tough time getting anything going against him.”

Bradish wasn’t the only Baltimore pitcher with a solid showing. Right-hander Shintaro Fujinami, who was acquired in a trade with the A’s on Wednesday, made his Orioles debut, flashing the high-octane arsenal that appealed to the club, most notably a four-seam fastball that touched 101.5 mph.

Fujinami allowed a first-pitch homer to Jose Siri to open the seventh, but the 29-year-old settled in after that, retiring the next three batters to complete his lone inning. He used a 94 mph splitter in the dirt to strike out Wander Franco to end the frame.

“He got ambushed there that first pitch, but after that, wow,” Hyde said. “I thought he had great stuff.”

With two more games at The Trop this weekend, the Orioles could be back alone in first place by the time they board their flight out of St. Petersburg on Sunday evening. Even if Tampa Bay might not be going anywhere in the division race, it could still be a confidence boost for Baltimore to take three of four and make a statement.

But for that to happen, the Orioles will need more run production after scoring only four over the first 19 innings of the series, all of which came Thursday before they were shut out for the seventh time this season on Friday.

“It just wasn’t our night offensively,” Hyde said.