Orioles 4, Rays 0
Rookie Wei-Yin Chen pitched seven solid innings to win for the third time in his last four starts and Chris Davis delivered a two-run single as visiting Baltimore cooled off Tampa Bay and the hottest pitching staff in baseball.
Matt Wieters and Nick Markakis added RBI singles and Nate McLouth had
two hits in his first game with the Orioles as Baltimore won for only
the second time in its last seven games at Tropicana Field. Davis also
recorded two hits and Markakis scored twice.
Chen (10-6), who was 0-2 with a 5.84 ERA in two previous starts against the Rays, allowed five hits, walked one and struck out four. Pedro Strop and Jim Johnson each pitched an inning of relief to complete the six-hitter.
Tampa Bay's Jeremy Hellickson (6-7) had his two-start winning streak halted. He allowed four runs, eight hits, walked four and struck out four in four innings.
The Rays, who lead the majors in ERA, strikeouts and opponents’ batting average since the All-Star break, lost for only the second time in their last seven games.
Davis delivered a two-out single to right-center field to score Mark Reynolds and Markakis in the fourth inning to make it 4-0.
The Rays threatened in the fourth with two on and one out before Chen struck out Carlos Pena and got Sean Rodriguez to pop out.
Tampa Bay also had two on with two out in the eighth inning before Strop worked out of trouble by striking out Jeff Keppinger on three sliders.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Rays RF Sam Fuld threw out Wieters at the plate on the fly after Wilson Betemit’s single to end the third inning but was caught stealing third with Tampa Bay trailing 4-0 in the fifth. … Hellickson fell to 5-3 lifetime against Baltimore, 3-2 at Tropicana Field. … Markakis is 33-for-90 (.367) since returning from the disabled list July 13 after recovering from a hamate bone fracture. … Tampa Bay’s bullpen pitched five shutout innings and has allowed two runs in its last 48 frames.