Tampa Bay Rays at Baltimore Orioles

Sarasota, Florida: The Tampa Bay Rays opened up the 2010 spring training season with a 12-2 loss against the Baltimore Orioles at Ed Smith Stadium. A strong breeze out of the ball park aided in a combined seven home runs during the contest. Six of the home runs came from the bats of Baltimore as the wind blowing out to right aided the predominantly left handed lineup of the Orioles.

The Orioles drew first blood with a solo home run by Josh Bell off Matt Garza in the third inning. They then posted two more runs in the fourth inning off Dale Thayer to increase the lead to 3-0.

The Rays reached the scoreboard in the top of the fifth. Kelly Shoppach led off the inning with a single to short. Shoppach advanced to second on a ground out by Ryan Shealy then moved to third on a wild pitch. Reid Brignac struck an RBI single that scored Shoppach and pulled the Rays to within two runs of the lead. Baltimore matched the run in the bottom of the inning on a solo home run by Nick Markakis to give the Orioles a 4-1 lead.

Baltimore struck again the bottom of the sixth inning with back to back homers. Former Rays minor leaguer Rhyne Hughes struck a two run homer to right. Josh Bell followed with his second home run of the afternoon with a solo home run to left to increase the lead to 7-1.

Tampa Bay picked up their only home run of the slugfest in the top of the seventh inning. Sean Rodriguez came into the game and delivered a solo home run to left field for the second and final run of the contest for the Rays.

But it wasn’t long for the Orioles to strike again and once again with the long ball. Scott Moore got thing started with a solo home run to right. Chad Moeller then drew a walk and later scored on an RBI single by Jonathan Tucker. Rhyne Hughes followed with his second home run of the game, a two run shot to give the Orioles a 11-2 lead.

Baltimore picked up their final run of the game in the eighth inning. Matt Angle led off the inning with a free pass after being hit by a pitch. Angle later scored on an RBI double by Lou Montanez to give the Orioles the 12-2 margin of victory.

For more pictures from the game, visit my Rays/Orioles game gallery.