Tampa Bay beat Baltimore 3-1 on Sunday as Nick Martinez held the Orioles to one hit over six shutout innings to pace the Rays to the series victory.
Martinez, who earned the win, struck out four and allowed no earned runs in his six innings of work. Chandler Simpson and Junior Caminero each drove in a run for Tampa Bay, while Colton Cowser supplied Baltimore's lone RBI on a solo home run in the ninth.
Tampa Bay did all its damage in the sixth inning, scoring three runs with two outs to break open a scoreless game.
Yandy Díaz hit a hard ground ball to Jackson Holliday’s left that scooted under his glove. Jonathan Aranda hit a single to right, and Baz wild pitch scored Díaz before Junior Caminero knocked a single up the middle to make it 2-0. Reliever Grant Wolfram came on and allowed an RBI single to Chandler Simpson, the third run charged to Baz, who fell to 4-14 on the season but hasn't gotten much run support in his starts.
The Orioles have scored a little more than three runs per game, on average, when Baz pitches, which is historically pathetic run support.
"For whatever reason, we just need to put up more runs whenever he's pitching," Cowser said. "He's always keeping up in it. Some weird things happened today, a couple ball's sneak through. The line wasn't what it should have been for him."
The Orioles, who managed just two hits on the day, could not solve Martinez and got nothing going until Cowser's solo shot off Bryan Baker in the ninth — by then too little to matter. Baltimore's lineup went a combined 0-for-28 at the plate aside from Cowser's two hits.
"Baz pitched well enough," Orioles manager Craig Albernaz said, "definitely well enough for us to win."
Baker earned the save despite allowing the homer. The Orioles drop to 63-68 with the loss, with their lineup — including Pete Alonso, Gunnar Henderson, and Jackson Holliday — held without a hit on the afternoon. Baltimore is now two games behind Cleveland (65-66) for the third and final American League wild-card spot.
The O's embark on a three-city, nine-game road trip that begins Tuesday in St. Louis.