Rays squander early chances

Jonathan Schoop hit a tiebreaking homer in the eighth inning and the AL East-leading Baltimore Orioles came back from an early deficit to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 on Friday night.

Schoop got his 15th homer leading off the inning against Chris Archer (4-13), who leads the majors in losses. Schoop is 5 for 13 with two homers in his career against the Rays’ opening day starter.

Mychal Givens (7-1) worked a scoreless seventh for the win one day after his daughter was born. Pedro Alvarez homered and had two RBIs for the Orioles.

Brad Miller had a one-out double in the ninth off Zach Britton and went to third on a wild pitch. After Evan Longoria was intentionally walked, Britton struck out Logan Morrison and Steven Souza Jr. to earn his 28th save in as many chances.

Archer gave up four runs and seven hits in 7 1/3 innings as Tampa Bay lost for the 23rd time in 26 games.

After Souza’s bases-loaded RBI grounder in the first, Tampa Bay went up 2-0 on Logan Forsythe’s run-scoring single in the second. Eleven of the Rays’ 19 batters through three innings against Yovani Gallardo reached base.

Luke Maile, recalled from Triple-A Durham, made it 3-1 with a third-inning RBI single.

Alvarez hit his 10th homer in the third and added an RBI double two innings later that got Baltimore within a run at 3-2. Baltimore tied it at 3 in the sixth on Matt Wieters’ RBI grounder.

Gallardo allowed three runs, eight hits and walked four over five innings.

Notes: Kevin Kiermaier (broken left hand) was reinstated from the 15-day disabled list after missing almost two months. “It’s like another opening day for me,” said Kiermaier, who went 0 for 3 with a walk and a run scored. ... Right-hander Kevin Jepsen, released by Minnesota after going 2-5 with a 6.16 ERA in 33 games, was signed to a one-year contract ... Right-handers Ryan Garton and Tyler Sturdevant were optioned to Durham.

This story was originally published July 15, 2016 at 11:24 PM with the headline "Rays squander early chances."