There were times they seemed to have the game in hand. There were times they let it slip through their fingers.
The Tampa Bay Rays‘ winning streak ended Wednesday night when they blew a 7-6 defeat to the Baltimore Orioles. The Rays blew a 4-0 lead and a 6-4 lead in the ninth along their way to the loss, squandering a pair of home runs by Evan Longoria along the way.
It was Longoria’s 200th and 201st home runs of his career.
For the O’s, it was only their second win in their last 14 games and their first in seven. Baltimore got two home runs itself from Chris Davis, one that tied the game at four and one that won it in the 11th.
The Rays had won two of their easiest games of the year the last two nights, beating Baltimore 6-3 and 11-2. Wednesday looked as if it would be more of the same, as the Rays took a 4-0 lead in the third. But Baltimore came back to tie the game against Erasmo Ramirez.
Undaunted, the Rays went back ahead 6-4. But Brad Boxberger continues to struggle in the ninth. He gave up a two-run home run to John Schoop. Boxberger now has five blown saves and nine losses on the year.
Matt Andriese gave up the winning home run to Davis in the bottom of the 11th.
Second baseman Logan Forsythe continued his torrid hitting – he has 11 hits in his last four games – with three hits. Longoria, James Loney and J.P. Arencibia all had two.
Jake Odorizzi starts for the Rays Friday night against the New York Yankees.
