Baltimore right-hander Dylan Bundy will make a seventh attempt at his first win of the season when the Orioles play host to the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday.
The Rays took the opener of the three-game series on Friday, winning 7-0 behind seven scoreless innings from Tyler Glasnow. Tampa Bay earned its second victory in a row while Baltimore fell for the sixth time in seven games.
Bundy (0-4, 6.67 ERA) has lost each of his past four outings and has allowed nine home runs in 28 1/3 innings overall this year.
Last time out, he gave up four runs and five hits in five innings of a 4-1 road loss to the Minnesota Twins on Sunday. He walked three and struck out eight.
“I thought Dylan threw the ball good,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “Again, he kind of got stronger as the game went on.
“I feel like he pitches good when he gets a little bit irritated and a little bit upset. And I feel like all the sudden you start seeing some 93s (mph). I like that about him in that I feel like his stuff ticks in when he gets into tougher situations. I’m happy with the way he battled for five innings.”
Bundy is 3-5 with a 6.22 ERA in 11 games (10 starts) against Tampa Bay. He will have to be wary of red-hot Rays rookie Brandon Lowe.
The second baseman, serving as the leadoff man for the seventh time in his past eight starts, went 2-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to eight games. He is 12-for-31 (.387) with nine runs in that span. It was his 11th multi-hit effort in 29 games this season, including four in his past six games.
Right-hander Ryne Stanek (0-1, 2.81 ERA) plays the role of opener for the Rays on Saturday, making his ninth start and 14th appearance of the season.
In his most recent outing, he gave up three runs on three hits in one inning Wednesday during a 3-2 road loss to the Kansas City Royals. He was pitching as the opener for the second time in three days.
Stanek hadn’t been scored on his first seven turns as the opener, covering 10 2/3 innings, before the Royals scored two runs in his first five pitches.
“Honestly, I felt like I had good stuff,” Stanek told the Tampa Bay Times. “Whit Merrifield ambushed me first pitch (for a double), and then I just got behind Adalberto Mondesi (who homered). Beyond that, I felt like I threw the ball pretty well.”
The Royals also stole third twice in the inning.
“The stolen bases, that’s a little uncharacteristic that we just kind of had a little bit of a mental lapse right there,” Cash told the Times.
Stanek is 0-1 with a 4.76 ERA in 10 games (five starts) versus the Orioles.
In his only appearance against Baltimore this year, Stanek tossed a scoreless first inning on April 17, striking out three of the four batters he faced. The lone exception was Dwight Smith Jr., who doubled.
Smith went 2-for-4 on Friday, making him 8-for-16 in the past four games.