O's remain confident as Rays close AL East gap

BALTIMORE -- For the first time since late July, the Orioles’ American League East lead has dwindled to one game. For the third consecutive night, their magic number to clinch a postseason berth remained at four.

Even after Baltimore dropped the first game of potentially the most important series of the season -- taking a 4-3 loss against Tampa Bay on Thursday in the opener of a pivotal four-game AL East clash at Camden Yards -- the O’s aren’t showing any signs of concern.

There’s no panic. There isn’t any pressing.

“We’ve started off a series with a loss before,” said rookie infielder Gunnar Henderson, who hit one of the Orioles’ two solo homers on the night.

• Games remaining (16): vs. TB (3), at HOU (3), at CLE (4), vs. WSH (2), vs. BOS (4)
• Standings update: The Orioles (91-55) lead the American League East by one game over the second-place Rays (91-57). Baltimore has the best record in the AL, meaning it would not have to play a best-of-three Wild Card Series and instead would head to the best-of-five AL Division Series as the No. 1 seed.
• Magic number: 4 for postseason berth

Henderson is right. The O’s had lost 15 previous series openers this season. But no series to this point has felt like this final set against the Rays, one that could determine which of the two rivals wins the AL East title and likely secures the No. 1 seed in the AL.

The atmosphere at Camden Yards on Thursday already had a postseason-like feel, with the 24,835 energetic fans in attendance understanding the magnitude of this series.

Baltimore leads the season series against Tampa Bay, 6-4, meaning it needs at least one victory to take it. That’s hugely important, as head-to-head records decide all potential tiebreakers. It would ensure the Orioles’ lead over the Rays in the AL East would actually be one game more than it appears on paper.

However, the O’s may no longer have an AL East lead if they don’t bounce back from Thursday’s loss, which was decided by Luke Raley’s tie-breaking two-out solo home run off Kyle Bradish in the seventh inning. That one swing ended the Baltimore right-hander’s streak of quality starts at five, as he allowed four runs over seven frames.

“I have no doubt we'll bounce back tomorrow, get a win tomorrow,” Bradish said. “It was just a bad day.”

The game was tied at 3 entering the seventh, but only because the Orioles failed to break it open when they had a chance to do so in the fifth. They loaded the bases with no outs against Rays starter Aaron Civale, but they came away with only one run on Adam Frazier’s RBI fielder’s choice, as Adley Rutschman grounded into a double play to end the inning.

Baltimore’s bats have gone a bit cold in recent days, as the club scored only two runs on Tuesday and none on Wednesday in consecutive losses to St. Louis. Henderson and Ryan O’Hearn each went deep Thursday, but the missed opportunity in Civale’s final frame loomed large.

“We’ve just got to do a little bit better job,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “That’s something that we’ve been good at this year, is to push more runs across in those kinds of situations, and we just didn’t do it tonight.”

The Rays’ relief quartet of Colin Poche, Shawn Armstrong, Robert Stephenson and Pete Fairbanks combined for four perfect frames vs. the Orioles, who struck out 15 times. Tampa Bay’s bullpen hasn’t allowed an earned run in 34 consecutive innings, dating back to Sept. 4.

If Baltimore loses again Friday -- when a sellout crowd will pack the stands on the night Adam Jones is set to retire as an Oriole in a pregame ceremony -- then the O's and Tampa Bay will be even atop the AL East standings. That hasn’t been the case since the end of play on July 21, the day before the O’s pulled ahead with a win over the Rays at Tropicana Field.

The Orioles have lost three games in a row for only the third time this season. They’ve lost exactly four straight only once this year. How do they snap out of their latest mini-funk in time to fend off the Rays and preserve their division lead?

“Just go out there and play our game. That’s what we’ve been doing all year, and it’s worked,” Henderson said. “We’re all looking at [the standings]. Who wouldn’t be at this point in the season? We’ve just got to take it a day at a time. You can’t really try and play for all that. You’ve just got to go out there and try to win one game at a time.”