Orioles put it all together for a complete win over the Rays

Hours before right-hander Shane Baz stepped onto the mound for what became his best start since joining the Orioles from the Rays in an offseason trade, manager Craig Albernaz noted that the missing link in Baltimore’s season has been playing a complete game.

“It’s been eluding us, playing that complete baseball game,” Albernaz said, speaking of hitting, pitching and defense all clicking at once.

This was a complete baseball game.

“Just playing good team baseball,” Albernaz said.

What the Orioles managed Tuesday is something that has been few and far between this season. Baz dazzled as he maneuvered around baserunners to produce seven innings of one-run ball. The offense took advantage of Tampa Bay’s mistakes to put up crooked numbers on the scoreboard. And behind Baz, the clean fielding helped coalesce one of the finest Orioles performances under Albernaz.

Baltimore beat Tampa Bay, 6-1, and sealed a series win against the American League East leader, just one week after suffering a dismal sweep in St. Petersburg. The Orioles have won four of their last five games — two of which came in dramatic walk-off fashion.

And all of a sudden, the heartbeat from this club (25-30) is stronger. While Albernaz prudently said he doesn’t check the wild-card standings so early in a season, it’s worth noting Baltimore is not out of the playoff picture by any means, despite its poor start.

“I don’t want to say yes because I also don’t want to bring us some bad luck here,” catcher Samuel Basallo said through interpreter Brandon Quinones when asked whether this could be the start of a good run of play. “But, thankfully, we have been playing a lot better and we feel really good about the way we’ve been playing and all we want to do is continue playing hard, playing the right way, and hope to keep this thing going.”

As ever, the pitching displays of late have a large role in the improved results. Orioles starters have allowed two earned runs or fewer six times in the last seven games, and Baz’s latest showing was the best yet. Against his former club, Baz scattered seven hits but buckled down to strand them.

The Rays were 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position, and that one came in the first inning, when Chandler Simpson scored on Jonathan Aranda’s single. Apart from that, six of Baz’s season-high nine strikeouts came with a runner on base.

One of the most notable parts of Baz’s outing was his increased changeup usage. He throws that pitch mostly to left-handed hitters because it’s “something that comes out looking like a fastball with backspin that’s hard to pull,” Baz said.

“It’s come a long way from the start of the year, and was able to use it quite a bit tonight and was really happy with it,” he said. “I think it just keeps lefties honest on the inner half.”

Baz’s start laid the groundwork for what was an impressive offensive showing — spurts of three runs in the second and fifth innings. The Rays, who recorded four errors in Monday’s 13-inning Orioles win, fumbled their way to another three Tuesday.

The first came in the second inning, when right-hander Griffin Jax couldn’t field a softly hit ball from Basallo. Leody Taveras then pelted Jax with a 107.2-mph line drive off his back, which left Jax sprawled on the ground for several minutes.

Jax resumed pitching the rest of that frame, but it didn’t go well for him or his defense. The Orioles scored their first run when a double play seemed equally as likely. With bases loaded, Blaze Alexander hit a grounder up the middle. Second baseman Richie Palacios fumbled it, and everyone was safe.

Two more runs scored when Jackson Holliday drove an RBI single and Taylor Ward lifted a sacrifice fly.

“To capitalize on some miscues was huge because that rarely happens with the Rays,” Albernaz said.

That small ball gave way to the long ball in the sixth, and it was possible because of another Rays error. The Orioles’ successfully challenged that shortstop Oliver Dunn did not touch second base after catching a feed from Palacios, and without that out, Basallo had the chance to face right-hander Trevor Martin with two outs.

On a 3-0 pitch, Basallo swung. He blasted the three-run home run to deep right-center field to break open one of the Orioles’ best wins of the year.

“They gave me the green light there and I thought, ‘I got to give my best swing here,’” Basallo said. “I was looking for a specific pitch. I usually don’t swing 3-0, but thankfully I was able to put a good swing on that one.”

To get out of this sub-.500 mire, the Orioles will need more of these kind of complete games. But to begin their climb back to relevance, Tuesday was as good a display as any.