homered and had a career-high five RBIs, Luke Scott also connected, and
the Baltimore Orioles rallied from a five-run deficit to beat rookie
Jeff Niemann and the Tampa Bay Rays 10-5 on Tuesday night.
Brian Roberts and Cesar Izturis had
three hits apiece for the Orioles, who trailed 5-0 in the third before
scoring six runs over a three-inning stretch against Niemann (12-6).
Niemann, who allowed six runs and a
career-high 11 hits in 4 1/3 innings, lost for the first time in nine
starts since July 26. It was his shortest start since June 21, and the
six earned runs matched a career high, set in his first outing of the
season against Baltimore.
Wieters put the Orioles ahead for
good with a two-run single in the fifth, Scott hit his team-high 22nd
homer in the seventh and Wieters clinched it with a three-run drive off
Chad Bradford in the eighth.
Tampa Bay's Pat Burrell broke out of
a 1-for-22 slump with a homer and four RBIs, and Ben Zobrist fell a
home run short of the cycle. But the Rays lost for the 12th time in 13
games.
Only 11,575 showed up on a beautiful
night for baseball. But with the Orioles in last place, and because the
opponent wasn't Boston or the New York Yankees, the stadium wasn't even
one-fourth full.
Jason Berken (5-11) gave up four runs
in the first inning and another in the third, but he kept Tampa Bay in
check long enough to allow the Orioles to take the lead. The
right-hander made it through 6 1/3 innings.
An RBI single by Zobrist and a
three-run homer by Burrell staked the Rays to a 4-0 lead in the first,
and Tampa Bay added a third-inning run when Zobrist tripled with two
outs and scored on a single by Burrell.
Baltimore closed to 5-2 in the bottom
half. Roberts drove in his career-high 74th run with his
franchise-record 52nd double of the season, and Nick Markakis followed
with an RBI grounder.
Izturis singled in a run in the
fourth, and the Orioles chased Niemann during a three-run fifth that
included a run-scoring groundout by Scott and Wieters' two-run single.
Notes
Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria
grounded into his AL-high 27th double play. … For only the third time
in 21 starts, Berken had three perfect innings. … Orioles CF Felix
Pie returned after missing three games with back spasms. He went 1-for-4, scored a run and made a couple of nice running catches.