Dean Kremer pitched 6 1/3 shutout innings as the Baltimore Orioles beat the visiting Tampa Bay Rays 6-0 to open a three-game series Tuesday night.

Colton Cowser hit a two-run home run to highlight the offense for Baltimore (74-83), which is trying to escape the American League East Division cellar by catching the Rays (76-81).

Jose Castillo, Colin Selby and Yaramil Hiraldo completed the two-hit shutout by following Kremer (11-10) to the mound.

Tampa Bay starter Ryan Pepiot (11-12) gave up three runs in three innings. Reliever Ian Seymour worked the final four innings and was tagged with three runs.

Cowser, Coby Mayo and Jordan Westburg all posted two hits for the Orioles.

Kremer, who secured his third victory this year against the Rays, allowed only a single to Chandler Simpson leading off the fourth inning. He struck out four and didn’t issue a walk, though he hit one batter with a pitch.

Kremer won for only the third time in a stretch of more than two months (11 starts).

The only moderate threats produced by the Rays came when Simpson reached second base on a wild pitch, and in the fifth when Jake Mangum made it to scoring position on left fielder Dylan Beavers two-out, two-base error.

Baltimore scored two runs in the first inning, on Gunnar Henderson’s sacrifice fly and Tyler O’Neill’s RBI groundout.

Henderson singled in a run in the third inning as the Orioles continued to bounce back from losing three of four games to the visiting New York Yankees last week.

Westburg’s fifth-inning sacrifice made it 4-0 before Cowser hit a two-run blast off Seymour in the sixth. Cowser has 16 home runs, one off Jackson Holliday’s team-leading mark.

Josh Lowe had the other hit for the Rays, a seventh-inning single.

The start of the game was delayed for more than an hour because of weather-related concerns.

–Field Level Media