Peter Schmuck: In an unlikely twist, first-place Rays make Orioles feel right at home

If there was a burning question entering Tuesday night’s game between the Orioles and first-place Tampa Bay Rays, it was whether the O’s could parlay a couple of dramatic comeback victories over the previous two days into some sustainable momentum.

The Rays, however, never really gave them a chance to find out.

The team with the best record in the American League looked so discombobulated that the Orioles will have to wait until Wednesday night’s series finale to prove that they have turned some kind of competitive corner during their longest homestand of the season.

What they did demonstrate – perhaps for the first time in a meaningful way this season – was the ability to take full advantage while the Rays stumbled through the early innings, committing four more errors to go with the three they made the day before.

All of the Orioles’ runs in their 6-1 victory were unearned, so it’s hard to know what actually would have happened if the Rays had made the plays that good teams are supposed to make, but this is not an attempt to discount what was a very meaningful Orioles victory.

There were a lot of situations earlier this season when a key hit or even a sacrifice fly here and there might have allowed them to at least stay around .500. On this night, no opportunity was lost during three-run rallies in the second and fifth innings that helped them move to within five games of sea level.

“We talk about that on our side … it’s tough to give the guys on the other side extra outs or an extra 90 feet,’’ manager Craig Albernaz said. “For us to capitalize on some miscues was huge because that rarely happens with the Rays, so being able to have that happen and for our guys to have some good at-bats and scratch some runs across is big for us. Because you never know what’s going to mean what – as far as 90 feet or giving away an extra out … It was great for our guys to finally capitalize on those.”

Credit 21-year-old catcher Samuel Basallo for putting a bow on it in the fifth after the Orioles challenged a force play at second base and the replay showed that fill-in shortstop Oliver Dunn straddled the bag but didn’t touch it with either foot. Jackson Holliday was ruled safe and one-out later Basallo pounced on a 3-0 pitch and delivered a moonshot into the right-center field bleachers to give the O’s a five-run advantage.

Still, who knows what would have happened if the Orioles hadn’t accepted all that charity. The Rays had scored a run in the first inning, but that was all they would get on a night when O’s starter Shane Baz navigated a ton of early traffic with a season-high nine-strikeout performance.

Albernaz couldn’t say enough about the maturity that Basallo has shown at such a tender age. He called a great game for Baz and continues to get more comfortable both at and behind the plate.

“It’s been awesome to watch,’’ Albernaz said. “We constantly talk about it. He’s 21 years old, didn’t have a ton of reps in the minor leagues and rightfully so because he just outperformed the minor leagues.

“There are going to be growing pains with him, but also the talent’s real and the way he can learn on the fly and what he can do, especially navigating the game at the big-league level. Calling pitches, receiving, blocking, throwing, then going out there and hitting in the middle of our order pretty much all year. It’s been really impressive.”

There have been growing pains all around for a young team that has underperformed for much of the first two months of the season, but there are signs that the Orioles are beginning to find their stride. They bounced back after suffering a discouraging four-game sweep at Yankee Stadium to win their first home series against the Yankees and basically did the same thing against the Rays.

Wednesday night, they will have a chance to complete that payback after winning four of the first five games of this 10-game homestand. A sweep against the league’s top team would go a long way toward convincing their fans and themselves that they can climb up the division standings and establish themselves as a playoff contender.