Zunino, Rays hit 5 HRs, blast Orioles 13-6 to win 5th in row

BALTIMORE (AP) — Mike Zunino hit two home runs and the Tampa Bay Rays connected five times in all, hammering the Baltimore Orioles 13-6 Tuesday night for their fifth straight win.

Brett Phillips and Austin Meadows hit three-run homers in the second inning and Ji-Man Choi hit a late drive as the Rays matched their longest winning streak of the year. Tampa Bay is a season-high five games over .500 at 24-19.

Baltimore has lost eight of its last 10 and fell to a majors-worst 6-16 at home. It was the first of 19 meetings this season between the AL East rivals, all crammed between May 18 and Aug. 29.

The Rays tagged Matt Harvey (3-4) in the second. They opened the inning with consecutive singles, and an out later Phillips hit Harvey's fastball to right for his second homer.

Tampa Bay’s Willy Adames poked a double off the third base bag, and Randy Arozarena reached on an infield single before Meadows drilled his ninth homer of the season to make it 6-0.

Harvey yielded six runs on seven hits in 1 2/3 innings. It was Harvey’s shortest start since a 1 1/3-inning outing against the Chicago White Sox on Sept. 6 while pitching for Kansas City and the second shortest of his 153 career starts.

Zunino hit two-run shots in both the third and fifth innings for his eighth career multihomer game and first since Aug. 8, 2018.

Choi added a two-run homer in the eighth, his first of the year after spending the first 40 games of the season on the injured list recovering from knee surgery.

Tampa Bay starter Luis Patiño was chased in the middle of Baltimore’s three-run fourth. He went 3 1/3 innings, yielding four runs on six hits while striking out six.

Andrew Kittredge (4-0) pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings in relief for the Rays.

Baltimore’s Cedric Mullins extended his hitting streak to 11...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Zunino-Rays-hit-5-HRs-blast-Orioles-13-6-to-win-16187052.php