ST. PETERSBURG, Florida—What happened? An emotional Trevor Rogers stood at his locker after another lopsided Orioles loss and tried to explain the reasons why.
Rogers pitched poorly for the fifth straight start, and the Orioles lost badly to the Tampa Bay Rays, 16-6, before 13,633 at Tropicana Field on Monday night.
Rogers allowed eight runs, one unearned, on eight hits in 3 2/3 innings against the Rays (31-15), who have the best record in the American League.
“I wish I had an answer for you,” Rogers said. “I don’t know. I just try to keep making pitches and it’s just not going my way. Just tip my cap to the Rays. Excuse my French, but they beat my ass tonight and I let down everyone in this room and I’m just not doing my job right now. And this loss is on me.”
Cameron Foster allowed four runs in 1 1/3 innings and Dietrich Enns four runs in the sixth inning.
Tampa Bay scored on the unearned run in the first. Gunnar Henderson’s error at short allowed Yandy Diiaz to go to third and score on Ryan Vilade’s sacrifice fly.
Five runs scored in the second inning. Diaz had a two-run single. Junior Caminero’s single and Jonny DeLuca’s double gave the Rays a 6-0 lead.
Rogers pitched until the fourth and left after Vilade’s triple scored Caminero. Vilade scored on DeLuca’s single.
Foster relieved Rogers (2-5) and gave up four runs in the fifth. With the bases loaded and none out, Aranda grounded to Henderson, who didn’t tag Diaz, who was nearing second. Instead, Henderson threw to first as Taylor Walls scored. Caminero hit a three-run home run, and the Orioles (21-27) trailed, 12-4.
Shane McClanahan (5-2) allowed four runs in five innings. Adley Rutschman had an RBI single in the fourth. Weston Wilson led off the fifth with his first home run, and Pete Alonso had a two-run double.
“I mean, every loss is disappointing,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “It doesn’t matter. It still counts as one loss, even if they put up 30 runs or we put up 30 runs.
“Yeah, I think the frustrating part about today was offense answered. We get within four and we couldn’t have the shutdown inning, you know? That’s the biggest thing. We walked seven guys today, too. We talk about it all the time, we’ve got to be efficient and pound the strike zone and get in and out of the innings, and we had a tough time doing that tonight.”
Enns gave up four runs in the sixth on an RBI single by Richie Palacios, a two-run double by Diaz, and a run-scoring single by Vilade to make it 16-4.
Rutschman’s seventh home run in the seventh and Blaze Alexander’s RBI double in the eighth accounted for the Orioles’ final two runs.
Wilson moved from third base to pitch a scoreless eighth.
“You hate when you have to do it,” Wilson said. “It’s usually a bad situation, so that part stinks, but it helps them out. Like it’s something that you know you gotta do it and hopefully save a guy or two from having to pitch, then we can win a ballgame tomorrow.”
Can Rogers turn his season around? Last year, Rogers had a 1.81 ERA in 18 starts. This year, he began with three good starts. Now he’s had five bad ones, including losing 15 days to the flu. His ERA is 6.87.
Albernaz keeps believing that Rogers will get better.
“Can’t explain it,” he said. “It’s one of those things where he came out of the gates really strong and hot, and he had a bad outing, and then he got sick. And here we are, it feels like he’s searching to regain his own form from earlier in the year.
“But for Trevor, he needs to keep on pushing and keep on working to get back to where he was. It might seem like a stretch, but I don’t think he’s far off. I think it’s just cleaning up locations of his pitches and getting to the right pitches at the right time in count leverage, the ability to miss bats and get weak contact.”
Rogers hopes he’s close to regaining form.
“Deep down, I think so,” he said. “The past four or five starts, it’s just been one inning where I’ve just gone off the rails with two outs, just nothing has gone my way. I feel like I’m really close. I still have the belief in myself. I know how good I can be. I’m just doing the complete opposite right now.”
When was the decision to activate Holliday made? The Orioles activated Jackson Holliday from the injured list less than 30 minutes before game time. He didn’t play.
“It was probably right during BP and seeing how he was moving around and talking to him,” Albernaz said. “We had a good conversation when we got here today, and just seeing where he’s at mentally. And once everyone saw him and we got a good gauge of where he’s at, we decided to make the move.”
What does it mean? Not only was Rogers disappointing, but Foster and Enns gave up eight runs. There will probably be a new bullpen arm for Tuesday’s game.
What’s the word? “No, every loss is the same. I mean, they put the ball in play and had a lot of great hits and great at-bats and got good pitches to hit and didn’t miss them. We’ve just got to keep on sticking with our process.”-Albernaz on another lopsided loss.
What’s the stat of the day? 6. The Orioles have allowed 11 runs or more six times in the last 22 games.
What’s going on in the minor leagues? High-A Frederick’s Victor Figueroa was named the Orioles’ minor league player of the month for April. Left-hander Joseph Dzierwa, who was promoted from Frederick to Double-A Chesapeake, is the organizational pitcher of the month. Single-A Delmarva right-hander Caden Hunter was named Carolina League player of the week.
What’s next? Kyle Bradish (2-5, 4.21) will start against Griffin Jax (1-2, 3.91) on Tuesday night at 6:40.
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