Rays hope bats stay hot in doubleheader vs. O's

The Tampa Bay Rays had arguably their best offensive game of the season in Friday's 16-4 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Now, the Rays want to try to come up with more offense when the teams meet in a split doubleheader on Saturday.

The first game begins at 1:05 p.m. with the nightcap set for a 7:05 start. It's a doubleheader to make up the rainout of a May 5 game.

Tampa Bay belted out 20 hits, including eight in a seven-run first inning in the series opener. The Rays also added a five-run seventh inning and improved their winning streak to three with the victory. Nate Lowe went 4-for-5 with a homer, while Tommy Pham also homered in the win.

But before the game, manager Kevin Cash made a comment that proved to be right on the money about what he wanted to see in this series.

"Overall, let's get the bats going and get off to a hot start here in the second half," he said to The Tampa Bay Times.

The Rays did just that, but one of the questions for Saturday is going to be the state of Austin Meadows. The All-Star batted twice Friday but was pinch-hit for in the third as the team said it wanted to rest him. Meadows had been dealing with food poisoning the past few days.

Tampa Bay also had to make some injury moves. They put left-hander Jose Alvarado on the injured list Thursday, retroactive to Sunday, due to a right oblique strain, and he could be out for a while.

Right-hander Chaz Roe also went on the injured list Thursday (right flexor strain). Two right-handers took their spots -- Diego Castillo from the injured list and Hunter Wood (recalled from Triple-A Durham).

Tampa Bay will call up Brendan McKay (1-0, 2.45) to start Saturday's first game and use him as the 26th man. This will be the third start of his career, and his first appearance versus Baltimore.

The Orioles go with Aaron Brooks in that first game. He had a 2-3 record plus a 5.01 ERA with Oakland this season before Baltimore claimed him on waivers July 6. Brooks has no record in one relief appearance versus Tampa Bay.

This also is going to be the first time Brooks will pitch as an Oriole, as the team is looking for starting pitching help.

The nightcap will feature a match-up of All-Star pitchers -- Charlie Morton (10-2, 2.32) for the Rays and John Means (7-4, 2.50) for Baltimore. Morton has a 2-2 career mark against the Orioles with a 3.47 ERA.

For Means, he's 1-0 with a 2.00 ERA in two games against the Rays.

Baltimore played a game that manager Brandon Hyde certainly was not thrilled with. The Orioles threw three wild pitches -- two of which brought in runs -- and made two errors.

"We did not play the game well," Hyde said Friday night. "Just poor, poor baseball, (but) it's one out of 162. Not our best night."

Hyde said that Friday starter Dylan Bundy had some knee soreness after the first inning and didn't come back, but he'd already given up those seven runs and should be all right.

Baltimore's offense played well in the last two series before the break but did not do much in the series opener. Renato Nunez homered, got an RBI double and drove in two runs.

The Orioles went 3-3 in the final six games before the break, all on the road, but got off to a bad start in Friday's rout. Hyde just kept emphasizing afterward that he wanted the team to work on correcting the mistakes and playing better.

--Field Level Media