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First Posted: 4/7/2015
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Adam Jones drove in two with a double during a four-run first inning Tuesday night, and the Baltimore Orioles hung on to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 6-5.
Steve Pearce homered for the second straight game, a two-run drive that made it 6-0 in the second for Orioles, who won Monday’s opener 6-2. Pearce, from nearby Lakeland, has five homers in his last 11 games at Tropicana Field.
Baltimore’s Chris Davis went 0 for 3, including an eighth-inning fly to the warning track, and was hit by a pitch as the DH in his return after a 25-game suspension for a positive amphetamine test. Orioles manager Buck Showalter said Davis will play first base in Wednesday night’s series finale.
Tampa Bay got two-run homers from Logan Forsythe and Kevin Kiermaier.
Forsythe cut the deficit to 6-3 with a home run that culminated an 11-pitch at-bat in the fourth against Wei-Yin Chen, who allowed three runs and four hits in 4 1-3 innings.
Kiermaier made it 6-5 on his homer off Kevin Gausman (1-0) during the sixth.
Zach Britton struck out three straight batters in a perfect ninth for his first save.
New Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash has lost his first two games. He replaced Joe Maddon, who used an opt-out clause during the offseason and became manager of the Chicago Cubs.
Travis Snider had an RBI single and Manny Machado hit a sacrifice fly in the first off Nathan Karns (0-1), who gave up six runs and five hits in 5 2-3 innings.
Acquired from Pittsburgh in January, Snider has three RBIs in his first two games with the Orioles.
Braves 12, Marlins 2
MIAMI — The Atlanta Braves scored seven runs in the first inning off Mat Latos and beat the Miami Marlins for the second day in a row to start the season.
Latos, acquired from Cincinnati in the offseason, lasted only two-thirds of an inning in the shortest outing of his career. He was booed as he left the game, his first for his hometown team, and departed with an ERA of 94.50.
It was the shortest outing by a starting pitcher in his Marlins debut, according to STATS. Latos (0-1) failed to record a strikeout for the first time in 154 career starts.
The Braves’ big inning included RBI doubles by Freddie Freeman, Christian Bethancourt and Chris Johnson, and a two-run single by Andrelton Simmons.
Freeman, who batted .135 against Miami last year, and Simmons each had three of the Braves’ 14 hits. New outfielder Cameron Maybin added a two-run single in the ninth.
Atlanta went 9 for 16 with runners in scoring position.
The offensive outburst was a big change for the Braves, and a big surprise. They ranked next-to-last in the majors in runs in 2014 and lost Justin Upton, Jason Heyward and Evan Gattis during the offseason.
So far, they’ve hardly looked like a rebuilding team. Alex Wood (1-0) allowed two runs in five innings, and three relievers completed a five-hitter for the Braves, who have given up three runs in two games.
Rain delay at Dodger Stadium
LOS ANGELES — It’s raining, it’s pouring, and the Dodger Stadium infield is covered by a tarp — a rare sight at Chavez Ravine.
With the Dodgers set to host the Padres in the middle game of their season-opening series Tuesday night, a hard and steady rain began to fall while San Diego was taking batting practice. The scheduled start was pushed back 30 minutes to 7:40 p.m., an unusual delay for sunny Southern California.
The most recent rainout at Dodger Stadium was April 17, 2000, when the Houston Astros were in town. There have been 17 rainouts since the ballpark opened in 1962, and the Padres were the visiting team most often — six times.