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Navarro, Devil Rays hand Orioles eighth straight loss

Aug 30, 2007 - 4:18 AM BALTIMORE (Ticker) -- Dioner Navarro continued the Baltimore Orioles' woes.

Navarro snapped a 12th-inning tie with a booming single as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays staged a dramatic late comeback en route to a 5-4 victory over the struggling Orioles at Camden Yards on Wednesday night.

Navarro and Brendan Harris each drove in two runs for the Devil Rays, who erased a three-run, eighth-inning deficit against the Orioles' bullpen.

"We obviously lost or missed a lot of opportunities to score more runs," Devil Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "More than anything, I really appreciated the perseverance of the group."

With the loss, Baltimore now has lost eight games in a row and been outscored, 90-32, during the skid. The horrid stretch includes surrendering an American League-record 30 runs in the first game of a doubleheader against the Texas Rangers last Wednesday.

In the series opener against the Devil Rays on Tuesday, the Orioles' bullpen blew a five-run advantage in the eighth, allowing 11 runs in the top of the frame. It was more of the same one night later.

"Baltimore's given us a lot of problems in the past," Maddon said. "I have a lot of respect for this group, the Baltimore group."

With the game tied at 4-4 in the 12th, shortstop Joel Guzman reached on an infield single and advanced to third on third baseman Melvin Mora's throwing error. Facing Rob Bell (3-3), Navarro then plated Guzman with a long single that one-hopped the right field wall.

"I think the momentum and the confidence starting getting to us, and we just had great at-bats and we pulled out a win," Navarro said.

"We played our hearts out and the guys earned a lot of respect tonight," Orioles manager Dave Trembley said. "Mistakes are part of the game."

Tampa Bay starter James Shields hurled eight innings, allowing four runs and 10 hits. Dan Wheeler pitched the ninth and Grant Balfour (1-0) tossed two scoreless frames to pick up the win.

Al Reyes worked the 12th for his 21st save.

Tampa Bay forced extra innings with a rally against Baltimore closer Danys Baez, who blew a save by allowing a two-out RBI single by Harris in the ninth. The poor frame by Baez, a former Devil Ray, came one inning after he squirmed out of a dangerous jam.

"Tampa stranded 16," Trembley said. "We had some chances also to get a big hit and we didn't. That's baseball."

Orioles starter Steve Trachsel allowed one run and four hits in six solid frames and Jamie Walker pitched a scoreless seventh. But Chad Bradford got into trouble while trying to hold a 4-1 lead.

After an RBI double by Harris in the eighth, Baez relieved Bradford and yielded a sacrifice fly by Navarro that drew Tampa Bay within 4-3. He then squirmed out of trouble thanks to first baseman Kevin Millar, who made a sliding stop on Akinori Iwamura's grounder near the line and flipped to Baez to end the inning.

The Devil Rays opened the scoring in the first. Carl Crawford ripped a one-out double and Carlos Pena plated him with a single to make it 1-0.

The Orioles took the lead in the third as Jay Payton ignited a two-run rally with a leadoff single. Brian Roberts then slammed a run-scoring triple to right field and Patterson drove him home with a base hit, giving Baltimore a 2-1 edge.

Aubrey Huff extended the advantage in the sixth with his 14th homer of the season, a two-run blast to right off Shields.

"(Aubrey's) a good hitter," Shields said. "He's a good hitter. He always was good, and he always will be. My fastball control wasn't really there. I think it was just one of those nights where I had to battle."