Zach Eflin scattered four hits over seven shutout innings, and Colton Cowser and Cedric Mullins each homered to lead the Baltimore Orioles to a 4-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in the opener of a three-game series on Friday night in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Eflin (8-7), who was traded by Tampa Bay to Baltimore on July 26, walked one and struck out seven while improving to 3-0 in three starts with the Orioles. Baltimore, which improved to 25-12 against teams in the American League East, moved a half-game ahead of the New York Yankees for first place in the AL East.
Eflin, who went 21-15 with a 3.72 ERA in 50 starts with the Rays during the 2023 and 2024 seasons, threw 94 pitches, 61 for strikes.
Eloy Jimenez had three hits, Ryan O’Hearn went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a walk, and James McCann also had two hits and a run scored for Baltimore, which improved to 7-1 against Tampa Bay this season.
Dylan Carlson homered and Jose Caballero had a double for Tampa Bay. Zack Littell (5-8) had a two-start winning streak snapped after allowing three runs on eight hits over five innings. He walked one and struck out five.
Baltimore took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Cowser led off with his 18th home run of the season on the fourth pitch of the game.
The Orioles increased their lead to 3-0 in the fifth inning. Ramon Urias led off with a single, advanced to second on an infield single by McCann and went to third on a long flyout to center by Anthony Santander. Gunnar Henderson followed with a walk to load the bases and O’Hearn hit a bloop single to center to drive in Urias and McCann.
Mullins made it 4-0 in the sixth when he hit his 12th home run, a towering 426-foot drive to center off reliever Richard Lovelady.
Carlson cut it to 4-1 when he led off the bottom of the ninth with a home run off Yannier Cano that went just inside the right field foul pole.