Chris Archer gives up four home runs as Rays fall to Orioles
BALTIMORE (AP) -- Chris Archer's bid to end a lengthy slump ended under a barrage of home runs.
Archer gave up a career-high four homers Friday night, and the Tampa Bay Rays lost 6-1 to the unbeaten Baltimore Orioles.
Chris Davis started the longball display with a second-inning shot, and three of his teammates went deep in the fifth: Jonathan Schoop, Nolan Reimold and Manny Machado.
"I made a few mistakes, and they definitely capitalized," Archer said. "Giving up four homers in a game is very, very rare for any pitcher, for me in particular, so I'm not going to dwell upon it too much. I just know that I need to execute better early in the count."
Archer (0-2) allowed six runs and 10 hits over five innings. The Rays' opening day pitcher is 0-5 with a 6.15 ERA in eight starts since Aug. 31 at Baltimore.
"I thought Baltimore had a really good approach against him," Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said. "A lot of guys in that lineup have seen him time and time (again). They don't expand too much on him. We all know how devastating the wipeout slider is, then you combine that with the fastball up in the zone. But they just don't seem to expand on him."
Matt Wieters had two RBIs and Davis scored three runs to help the Orioles (4-0) build on their season-opening, three-game sweep of Minnesota. The best start in franchise history is 5-0 in 1970.
"We're just trying to get in the groove, trying to get a feel for everybody and a feel for the lineup, and I think we're settling in," Machado said.
Chris Tillman (1-0) gave up one run and four hits in five innings. He retired the last nine batters he faced.
Evan Longoria homered for the Rays, who have gone deep in a club-record 19 consecutive games. It's the longest streak in the majors since Seattle connected in 23 straight games in 2013.
But Tampa Bay was limited to five hits, four of them singles.
Cash credited Tillman, who got off to a rocky start before dominating.
"You could tell he was getting in a groove and just really quieted us down quite a bit," Cash said.
Longoria's first home run of 2016 staked Tampa Bay to a first-inning lead. It was his seventh career homer off Tillman, the most against any pitcher.
Davis tied it in the second with a shot to center, his second homer of the season and 800th career hit.
Wieters put the Orioles ahead with an RBI single in the fourth, and Baltimore pulled away with a four-run fifth. Schoop started the barrage with a drive to center on Archer's first pitch of the inning, and two outs later Reimold and Machado connected in succession.
"My slider wasn't as good as it normally is," Archer said. "I left a few of those up, and they took advantage. Overall, I just didn't execute. There's going to be nights where you don't have everything clicking, and you definitely want to do a better job for your team than I did tonight."
Wieters made it 6-1 with a liner that struck Archer's glove and bounded away.
The Orioles played a second straight game without center fielder Adam Jones, who is experiencing soreness in his ribcage.
Baltimore shortstop J.J. Hardy also sat out the game with "calf tightness," according to manager Buck Showalter.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Rays: Cash intended to shuffle his lineup this series to prevent some of his starters from pulling muscles in the cold. "We're not looking to risk any additional injury because of the temperatures," he said.
Orioles: LHP Brian Matusz (ribcage) pitched a scoreless inning for Double-A Bowie against Akron and could come off the DL on Sunday.
UP NEXT
Rays: Weather permitting, Drew Smyly (0-1) gets his second start of the season Saturday night. Snow is in the forecast.
Orioles: Right-hander Mike Wright is looking to make his 2016 debut Saturday. He went 3-5 in 12 games last season.
