Rays Fall to Orioles in AL East Weekend Series

There must be something in the water when the Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles face off that always seems to end with an Orioles victory.

For the fourth straight season, Baltimore clinched the season series against Tampa Bay. They got off to a great start on Friday, using a three-run fifth inning and a three-RBI performance from first baseman Pete Alonso to emerge victorious in a 5-3 result, keeping pace in the American League Wild Card race.

At the same time, the Rays have lost another series against an AL East opponent and now sit just three games ahead of the New York Yankees, who have won six of their last seven contests.

Three of those five wins came earlier this week against the very same Orioles team inside Camden Yards, but Tampa Bay, now 5-8 against Baltimore this year, did not find the same success.

Here are the main takeaways and storylines from Tampa Bay’s series loss against Baltimore over the weekend.

Rays Continue Slide Against Orioles on Friday

Freddy Peralta Gives the Rays Length, But Not Quality

Trade deadline acquisition Freddy Peralta has noticeably struggled across his first four starts in a Rays uniform, registering just one quality start over that stretch and two outings with five earned runs allowed or more.

The second of those came on Friday night in Baltimore. After working around an early 1-0 deficit in the first inning thanks to Jackson Holliday and Pete Alonso, Peralta allowed a solo homer from Dylan Beavers in the second to make it a one-run game before finding his groove.

Peralta posted back-to-back scoreless innings, but in the fifth, momentum swung immediately in Baltimore’s favor as Holliday wasn’t rung up on a check swing that clearly broke the plane of the plate, yet wasn’t called by third base umpire Dillon Wilson.

Holliday was halfway back to the dugout before realizing he wasn’t rung up on the swing, one that saw Rays manager Kevin Cash ejected for the first time this season. The missed call immediately resulted in an RBI sacrifice fly from Holliday and a two-run homer from Alonso with two outs, giving Baltimore a 5-3 lead.

Peralta finished out his outing with two more scoreless frames, allowing five runs over seven innings while striking out six. It wasn’t a flashy outing, but he saved Tampa Bay’s bullpen, which had been strained over the past week, as the Rays used just one pitcher for the remainder of the game.

Kenny Piper Makes Return To Big Leagues

The Rays brought three catchers with them on this latest road trip to Baltimore and Detroit, calling Kenny Piper back up from Double-A Montgomery after making his debut earlier this month in Colorado.

Piper recorded his first MLB hit and run in a 13-9 Rays win over the Rockies, and he put the Rays out in front once again on Friday in the second inning.

He connected on a 95.3 mph, middle-middle fastball from Trevor Rogers, sending it over the left-center field wall and into the Orioles bullpen for his first MLB home run. The ball came off his bat at 102.5 mph and traveled 410 feet.

Piper is now 2-for-8 in his big league career, with hits in his first two MLB games. He also threw out Colton Cowser on the basepaths in the bottom half of the second on Friday.

Chandler Simpson Extends Career-Long Hitting Streak

As Yandy Díaz’s 11-game hitting streak came to a close on Friday after an 0-for-4 performance at the plate, Chandler Simpson was able to extend his career-long streak to 12 games with a second-inning RBI single that plated Junior Caminero.

In his last 21 games played, Simpson has recorded a hit in 20 of them, expanding on what he was able to do in July, when he hit .365 with an .830 OPS.

So far in August, he’s hitting a blistering .402 with an .834 OPS, as his average on the year hovers near .310 and his OPS near .700. Simpson’s on-base percentage has also risen from .326 in 2025 to .337 so far in 2026.

This recent two-month stretch came after a June in which Simpson struggled mightily, hitting .211 with a .527 OPS, which lowered his season average to .259 at one point. But things have changed drastically since.

Simpson’s strength in the minor leagues, and a big reason why he progressed quickly through the Rays’ farm system, was his ability to get on base, and since the start of July, he’s done just that.

Across his last 53 games, Simpson is getting on base at a .391 clip, helped largely by his .374 average during that span. He’s never been someone who works the count and draws walks, having drawn just eight walks in his last 219 plate appearances, but when he gets on base, he’s caused havoc, especially as a base stealer.

Simpson has recorded 16 stolen bases across July and August with an 84% success rate. For now, it looks like the Georgia Tech standout has figured things out, becoming a vital piece in the outfield and in the lineup in the process.

Rays Get Walked Off for Second Time in Baltimore on Saturday

Heading into the eighth inning of Saturday night’s game between the Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles, the Rays had lost just once when leading in the seventh inning or later, holding a 63-1 record overall.

That became 63-2 after right-handed pitcher Kevin Kelly, who hadn’t allowed a run since July 7, gave up a game-tying two-run home run to pinch hitter Samuel Basallo in the bottom of the eighth inning, turning a 2-0 Tampa Bay lead into a 2-2 ballgame.

Tampa Bay was unable to score in the ninth and 10th innings, coming close in both, and Dylan Beavers, just as he did last September at Camden Yards, sent the Orioles home winners with a walk-off double off the right-center field wall.

Closer Bryan Baker, who inherited Leody Taveras as the runner to begin the 10th inning, suffered the loss but didn’t add an earned run to his season ERA, which stood at 1.44 coming into the contest.

Tampa Bay Cannot Break the Orioles

The Rays seemingly broke the laws of baseball during the 2021 season, back when divisional opponents played each other 19 times a year instead of the current 13-game configuration.

That year, Tampa Bay went 18-1 against Baltimore, famously teeing off on relief pitcher Paul Fry, who posted a 34.71 ERA while allowing 18 earned runs across nine appearances and 4.2 innings pitched.

Since that point, outside of a 10-9 record against the Orioles in 2022, Baltimore has easily had the Rays’ number over the past four seasons, securing a series victory with Friday’s 5-3 win.

The Orioles have posted a 32-20 record against Tampa Bay since the start of the 2023 season, recording four straight season-series victories in rather convincing fashion. In 2026 alone, Baltimore is 3-0 against the Rays in extra-inning contests and 5-1 at Camden Yards following Sunday’s contest, where Tampa Bay took the matchup by a score of 3-1.

Shane McClanahan Bounced Back With an Increased Pitch Count

Shane McClanahan returned from the injured list on Monday against the Orioles at Tropicana Field, allowing three earned runs and four hits across 3.1 innings pitched.

McClanahan faced a pitch count out of the gates, limited to roughly 60 pitches, according to manager Kevin Cash. But in Saturday’s matchup, once again taking on Baltimore, this time at Camden Yards, Cash told reporters pregame that he would be given an extra 20-25 pitches to work with.

With an 85-pitch limit, the Baltimore-born McClanahan was stellar across five shutout innings, allowing four hits and a walk while striking out five. He worked out of two different jams with runners at third base, needing just 74 pitches to complete his outing.

McClanahan varied his pitch selection widely on the evening, throwing his fastball, which topped out at 98.6 mph, 46% of the time.

His curveball, changeup and slider made up the remaining 54% of his pitches and were used rather evenly, though the curveball saw the second-most usage at 20%.

Against left-handed hitters, McClanahan used the curveball and slider more often, both at 24%, but overall, he impressed within the pitch count he was given and kept Tampa Bay in the game heading into the middle innings.

Tyler Wells Closes the Book on His Orioles Tenure

Not even three weeks ago, Rays right-handed relief pitcher Tyler Wells was a member of the Orioles, but a deadline move on August 3 sent the 6-foot-8 right-hander to Tampa Bay for top-10 prospect Michael Forret, who was moved from the Rays back to Baltimore after originally being part of the return for starting pitcher Shane Baz.

Wells, after a rough 2024 season, has seemingly reinvented himself over the two seasons since, posting a 2.91 ERA and 0.88 WHIP in 2025 and currently owning a 2.70 ERA and 0.98 WHIP across 50 appearances so far in 2026.

As McClanahan returned to the mound on Monday, Wells came on in relief in the fifth inning of that game, allowing three runs in one inning of work.

However, in his last two appearances, including his first appearance in Baltimore since being traded, he’s returned to his former form. That was especially true on Saturday, when he struck out one and allowed one hit across two scoreless innings of work for his 14th hold of the season.

Tampa Bay has prided itself on a strong bullpen, and Wells has already been a great addition for a team in search of a deep playoff run.