Baltimore roughs up Shields in win over Rays

James Shields had a three-game winning streak to build on and a last-place foe to pitch against.

What he didn't have Saturday night at Camden Yards was his good command.

The Orioles jumped on him early and added on against Jeremy Hellickson in his first major-league relief appearance in an 8-4 victory that dropped Tampa Bay 2 1/2 games behind the Yankees in the AL East.

"It looked like his stuff was fine; they were just hitting him tonight," Manager Joe Maddon said of Shields (13-12), who gave up six runs on eight hits in 4 1/3 innings. "The velocity was good. I just think he left some pitches in really bad spots, and they got him."

The Rays hit three solo home runs, two of them coming with two outs in the ninth inning. John Jaso led off the game with a homer off Jeremy Guthrie (9-13), and Matt Joyce and newcomer Brad Hawpe each homered off Koji Uehara.

Hawpe's homer was his first hit as a Ray in two games.

Jaso, Joyce and Carl Crawford each had two hits, and Joyce had two RBIs, but most of the offense belonged to the Orioles, who pounded 15 hits.

Seven of the first eight hitters in Baltimore's lineup had two hits each. Nick Markakis hit a two-run homer off Shields in the first, Matt Wieters and Luke Scott had doubles off Shields and Felix Pie doubled off Hellickson.

Hellickson, the Rays' top pitching prospect who was sensational as a substitute starter last month (3-0, 2.05 ERA), surrendered two runs on six hits in 1 2/3 innings.

"I think just the fact he was coming into a major league game for the first time as a relief pitcher was a little different for him," Maddon said. "Stuff-wise, looked the same. Maybe not as sharp location-wise, but I thought it was a good situation for him to come in and find out how he felt about it."

Meanwhile, the Yankees won their eighth consecutive game earlier in the day, beating the Blue Jays 7-5, to maintain their blistering pace atop the division.

Tampa Bay did manage to add a half-game to its cushion over Boston in the wild-card race, pulling out to a 7 1/2-game lead after the Red Sox were swept by the White Sox.

Maddon said he isn't concerned about the Yankees' streak.

"I've been through this before in Anaheim, where the team ahead kept winning, but so did we. Now we've lost tonight; nevertheless we're kind of like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid a little bit. I'm still OK with it. There's plenty of time."

Shields had beaten the Rangers, Angels and Red Sox in his previous three starts, and he had a career record of 7-3 against the Orioles, including 4-0 with a 3.04 ERA at Camden Yards.

This time, he lasted 76 pitches in only his third start of the year in which he didn't last at least five innings.

Jaso's leadoff homer was his second of the season, and the Rays, after winning the series opener 4-1 on Friday night, had a 1-0 lead.

But Shields handed the lead back almost as quickly as his mates gave it to him.

Brian Roberts opened with a single, and Nick Markakis sent a full-count Shields fastball over the right-center wall to put the Orioles ahead 2-1.

The homer was the 30th against Shields this season, the second most allowed by any pitcher in the majors. Only two other Rays pitchers have allowed as many as 30 home runs in a season - Tanyon Sturtze (33 in 2002) and Ryan Rupe (30 in 2001).

Baltimore broke the game open against Shields with three runs in the third.

Cesar Izturis singled to center, Markakis singled to left for his second hit, and Ty Wigginton beat out a grounder to third baseman Evan Longoria for an infield hit to load the bases.

Shields then walked Luke Scott on a full-count change-up, and after Pie flew out to shallow right, Wieters hit a line-drive double down the right-field line to give Baltimore a 5-1 lead.

"In the third inning, I felt I had some bad luck," Shields said. "I (got) a nice little grounder with Wiggy, and, unfortunately, he was safe at first. I felt I struck out Luke Scott with the check swing, and the umpire didn't call it. That walked a run in, and the next guy (Pie) hit a pop fly, so I felt I should have been out of the inning.

"Then (with) Wieters, I hung a cutter over the plate, and he hit a double down the line. ... That's pretty much what it was."