Aaron Hicks set the tone with a home run in the first inning and hit four runs as the Orioles defeated the Rays 8-6 at Tropicana Field Tuesday night and the Orioles edged the Rays within four games in the American League East.
After his 2-for-4 performance, Hicks has gone .340/.444/.604 in 17 games since signing on May 30, the day Mullins was put on the injured list with a right groin strain achieved. His thing, a three-run shot that came off his racquet at an exit speed of 104.4 mph, was his third of 53 shots with his new racquet. Hicks had just one home run in 69 at-bats and averaged a .524 OPS with the Yankees that season before being released on May 26.
“The chances didn’t really present themselves to me [in New York], but that was the situation I was in,” Hicks said. “I had a tough year last year and now I have an opportunity here and I’m trying to make the most of it.
“It was great [with Baltimore]. The team have really welcomed me since I arrived and I’ve been able to play practically every day and it’s been fun.”
Hicks’ home run was part of a four-run first inning, the Orioles’ most prolific opening frame of the season. Anthony Santander added a two-run home run in the second run ahead of Rays starter Tyler Glasnow, who only went 4 1/3 innings and allowed six runs in a start for the first time since 2018.
“Any time they got a pitch that they could handle, it seemed like they had handled it,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said of the Orioles’ barrage against his starter.
Right-hander Kyle Bradish made sure that early support held up in five impressive innings. Against a club that came into play with a .505 slugging percentage against fastballs, Bradish threw just nine four-seamers – his fewest early in his career – and instead relied on his slider.
Bradish complained at his last start that his slider didn’t have the typical sharpness. On Tuesday, it was a Ginsu knife that split Tampa Bay’s scoring lineup. After three innings he had seven strikeouts and seven of his eight K’s came on the slider. Bradish missed 12 shots in 23 shots on the field, which equates to a high whiff rate of 52 percent.
If you want a glimpse of how the Rays hitters were stunned by Bradish, just look at his fourth-inning strikeout against Randy Arozarena, who flailed helplessly as the bat flew out of his hands and near landed by shortstop Jorge Mateo.
“It was really good,” Bradish said of his best pitch. “I mixed it early and late. … my last trip, [the slider] something was wrong. I think I was okay with that early on and then expanded on it.”
Cash said, “I think we were pretty aware of what he was trying to achieve with the curveball-slider combo, but we didn’t really have an answer for that.”
Tampa Bay eventually got close to Bradish by two runs in the fifth run and then closed the gap to 7-6 after a sixth run with four runs against three Orioles Relievers. Second baseman Adam Frazier secured the lead with a great running grab to end the inning.
Hicks then delivered his biggest hit of the night: a line-drive single midway through the eighth that scored Austin Hays and gave the Orioles a valuable insurance run.
Yennier Cano and Félix Bautista, as they have done so often this year, took care of things and recorded the last seven outs. The 28-year-old Bautista, who started the day with his teammates singing “Happy Birthday” to him in the Orioles’ clubhouse, ended the evening with his 20th save.
Although Mullins was scheduled to begin rehab at Triple-A Norfolk on Tuesday, the Tides’ game in Nashville was rained out. The Orioles can’t wait to welcome back their all-star center fielder. But Hicks’ resurgence has allowed them to give Mullins as much time as he needs to prepare for the second half of the season.
“We were lucky to have Hicks available and he played great for us,” said manager Brandon Hyde.