The Rays nearly overcame a large deficit Tuesday with a four-run inning. On Wednesday, a four-run second was all they needed to beat the Orioles.

Baltimore starting pitcher Tyler Wells had a disastrous second inning — allowing two home runs and committing two errors — and the Orioles’ bats couldn’t mount a comeback in a 7-2 loss.

A day after tallying 10 hits and eight runs, the Orioles managed just four hits, struggling to square up rookie starter Taj Bradley or Tampa Bay’s lights-out bullpen. The lone offense of the afternoon came on solo home runs to straightaway center field from Ramón Urías in the third inning and Gunnar Henderson in the ninth.

Baltimore (45-27) and the MLB-best Rays (52-25) end the two-game series at Tropicana Field with a split. The Orioles are five games back of Tampa Bay for first place in the American League East.

The two solo home runs Wells surrendered in the second continued a concerning trend amid his impressive campaign as Baltimore’s best starting pitcher and a potential All-Star candidate. Randy Arozarena and Isaac Paredes blasted back-to-back homers off Wells. Arozarena, who entered Wednesday with a 1.088 OPS in 41 career games against the Orioles, hammered a high fastball over the center field wall for his 14th homer of the year, while Paredes yanked a 3-2 cutter down the left field line.

In 14 starts, Wells has allowed 18 home runs, putting him on pace to give up nearly 40 this season. However, the reason he’s managed to lead the rotation with a 3.22 ERA and the major leagues with an 0.89 WHIP is because 12 of the 18 homers have been solo shots, while the other six have been two-run homers. Twenty-four of his 31 earned runs allowed this season have come via home runs.

It wasn’t the long ball that did Wells in Wednesday, though, but instead two soft tappers back to the mound. After the back-to-back homers, Wells booted a soft ground ball right at him. Three batters later, Jose Siri’s swinging bunt allowed him to reach first safely, but Wells compounded the bad luck with an imprudent throwing error, flinging an off-balance throw over first baseman Urías’ head. Two more runs scored in the fourth, and both were unearned because of Wells’ miscues.

Despite unraveling in the 39-pitch second, Wells bounced back over the next three frames to extend his streak of consecutive starts of at least five innings this season to 14. The 28-year-old faced just one batter over the minimum to record the final nine outs, ending his afternoon allowing four runs (two earned) on four hits and three walks while striking out six.

The Rays tacked on two insurance runs in the seventh inning off reliever Keegan Akin and one off Cole Irvin in the eighth. After relieving Logan Gillaspie in the sixth and striking out two to strand two runners, Akin gave up three singles in the seventh, including an RBI knock to Arozarena, as well as a sacrifice fly to Wander Franco. Yandy Díaz put the Rays up 7-1 with a two-out RBI single to right in the eighth.

This story will be updated.

Mariners at Orioles

Friday, 7:05 p.m.

TV: MASN

Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM

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