Tampa Bay Rays vs Baltimore Orioles Box Score on Aug 23, 2019

Austin Meadows belted a grand slam, the key hit in a seven-run second inning that helped the visiting Tampa Bay Rays defeat the Baltimore Orioles 7-1 on Friday night.

Meadows also homered in Thursday's come-from-behind 5-2 win, but that was a solo shot. This game was a different story, as Meadows' first career grand slam broke things open pretty quickly and gave the Rays command.

Tampa Bay also received a strong effort from starter Trevor Richards (4-12). This was just his second game -- and start -- since coming to the Rays from Miami in a July 31 deal, and he threw six shutout innings, giving up only two hits while striking out five and walking one.

Richards had a no-decision in his first start but shut down the Orioles in this one. This victory also ended a personal seven-game losing streak for Richards. He had not won since June 2 while starting for the Marlins at San Diego.

Aaron Slegers threw the final three innings and earned his first career save.

Baltimore starter Ty Blach (0-2) gave up seven runs and nine hits in his four innings of work. Blach struck out two and walked two, and threw 47 pitches in the second inning alone.

The Orioles did get some help from their bullpen after that. Rookie Dillon Tate, called up earlier in the day from Triple-A Norfolk, threw three scoreless innings of relief after Blach left. It was Tate's fourth major league game.

Kevin Kiermaier started things in the second with an RBI double that gave the Rays a 1-0 lead. After that, Tampa Bay scored six times with two outs.

Mike Zunino lined a two-run single to right that made it 3-0. Meadows later got his grand slam, a blast to right-center that gave the Rays a 7-0 lead.

The Orioles now have given up 261 home runs this year; they set a new single-season record in that category when allowing two home runs in Thursday's loss.

Baltimore scored its only run of the night on a home run, from Jonathan Villar, in the eighth.

--Field Level Media