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Manny Machado continues to obliterate baseball as he charges towards free agency following the 2018 season.
In the first inning on Friday, Machado clubbed a two-run homer off of Jake Faria to get the Orioles on the board. He added some serious thump later in the ballgame, crushing a grand slam off of Ryne Stanek in the seventh to put the game out of reach.
It was the fourth multi-homer game already on the season for Machado, and the 18th in his stellar young career. According to STATS, only three American League hitters have tallied more multi-homer games before turning 26 -- Hal Trosky (20), Jimmie Foxx (19) and Alex Rodriguez (19). That’s some pretty impressive company.
His seventh-inning blast was also the 150th of his career, making him the youngest Orioles’ hitter to reach that milestone.
As it becomes more and more clear that Machado is intent on hitting free agency, speculation continues to run rampant that the O’s will look to deal him away before the end of the season rather than letting him walk away for nothing in free agency.
With the way that he has swung the bat this season, he has done nothing but amplify his trade value. The 25-year-old is slashing a robust .354/.440/.667 with 12 homers, 35 RBI and a pair of stolen bases.
On the pitching side of the ledger, Kevin Gausman delivered another strong outing to earn the victory and improve to 3-2. The right-hander surrendered two runs on 11 hits over his 7 1/3 innings of work, striking out six in the process. He boasts a 3.18 ERA, 1.20 WHIP and 42/12 K/BB ratio across 51 innings on the season.
Chase Sisco (2) and Mark Trumbo (1) also left the yard for the Orioles.
It wasn't as pretty on the Rays' side where Jake Faria surrendered seven runs on eight hits over his six-plus innings. Now 3-2 on the year, Faria owns a troublesome 5.09 ERA and 1.25 WHIP for the season. Carlos Gomez went 2-for-4 with a two-run triple and a run scored in a losing effort.
With the victory, the Orioles improve to 11-27 on the season, which has them buried in the cellar in the American League East. With the loss, the Rays fall to 15-20. These two clubs will meet again for a straight doubleheader on Saturday. Chris Archer will match up against David Hess in the first game while Matt Andriese and Alex Cobb are set to square off in the nightcap.
