The Tampa Bay Rays are glad to be back in their domed home, where they win much more often than not, and it helps to get run-producer Jonathan Aranda swinging well again.

A night after Aranda poked an opposite-field, three-run homer off the left-field foul pole early in a 5-2 victory over Washington, the Rays will face the Nationals again on Saturday afternoon in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Trailing 2-0 in the third inning of Friday’s series opener, Aranda drove in three runs with one swing, moving him to 51 RBI, just eight from tying his career high set last season during an All-Star campaign.

“It was a key at-bat,” Aranda said through a translator of the go-ahead shot. “I was really focused in the moment. Just trying to stay mentally strong and help my teammates out in any possible ways.

“Happy to help get us back in the win column and happy to be back at home. The fans do a lot for us.”

Added manager Kevin Cash after the victory: “We haven’t had an (important) swing like that in a while.”

Winning pitcher Griffin Jax tossed five innings and echoed Aranda’s thoughts on the dome, saying, “This is our home. This is home field, and we have such an advantage playing here.”

The home-field advantage is real.

The American League East squad improved to a majors-best 25-9 at home, the only team still sporting single digits in losses and the first AL club to reach 25 victories in its park.

Reliever Ian Seymour (3-0, 4.93 ERA) will start Saturday for the third time for the Rays. He is 1-0 with a 1.80 ERA in one career start vs. Washington, a five-inning outing in a 7-4 win over them Aug. 31 in Washington.

On Friday, the Nationals got solo home runs from CJ Abrams and Luis Garcia Jr., but one of the surprise teams in the National League managed only six hits.

“Not missing the pitch to hit,” Abrams said of the importance of pitch selection. “Don’t get too many of them, so don’t miss the ones that are in the middle.”

Entering this three-game series, Cash said it was important to be “mindful” of his team not letting the visitors get on base, create plenty of traffic and run wild.

In addition to just six hits, Washington’s batters did not work one walk off Tampa Bay pitching — stymieing the Nationals’ speed and prolific offense for the most part.

Nasim Nunez did record his NL-best 27th steal, but little basepath traffic took place under the dome.

Washington manager Blake Butera gave credit to the home side’s bullpen, which did not allow a run in four innings, including a perfect ninth from closer Bryan Baker for his 19th save.

“Just really good arms and different angles and different stuff,” said Butera. “They threw a bunch at us … When they have a lead late in the game, it’s really hard to come back from that. We had a chance there, I thought, in the eighth, just couldn’t come through.”

Scratched on Friday morning after getting food poisoning, Cade Cavalli (4-4, 3.98 ERA) will make his first-ever outing against the Rays on Saturday.

The right-hander has won three of his past five decisions dating to May 16.

–Field Level Media

The task for the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday night already was a tall one.

A walk-off loss Friday might have made it even tougher.

The Orioles will look to bounce back from a discouraging defeat Saturday night, when they visit the Los Angeles Dodgers in the middle contest of a three-game series.

Left-hander Trevor Rogers (3-7, 5.86 ERA) is slated to start for the Orioles against Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto (7-4, 2.52), who flirted with a perfect game and a no-hitter in his most recent start.

The Orioles overcame an early three-run deficit before squandering a two-run lead in the ninth inning Friday. Dalton Rushing delivered the game-tying RBI single with two outs and Ryan Ward raced home on a throwing error by right fielder Tyler O’Neill as the hosts escaped with a 6-5 victory.

Orioles closer Ryan Helsley, making his second appearance since a seven-week stint on the injured list due to right elbow inflammation, gave up a one-out homer to Mookie Betts and issued walks to Max Muncy and Ward before Rushing singled to right on a 1-2 pitch.

Alex Call, pinch-running for Muncy, slid home with the tying run as O’Neill’s throw glanced off the glove of catcher Samuel Basillo and skipped toward the Dodgers dugout and well beyond Helsley, who was backing up the play. Ward never broke stride as he rounded third and scored the winning run standing up.

“Definitely a gut punch — that’s why it’s 27 outs and no time limit in this game,” Orioles manager Craig Albernaz said. “This one hurts, but our group will get over it quickly and get ready to go out (Saturday).”

The Orioles don’t have much of a choice but to get ready quickly for Yamamoto, who almost made three bits of big league history against the Chicago White Sox on June 13.

Yamamoto retired the first 23 batters he faced to run his streak of consecutive batters retired to 45, one shy of the big league record set by the San Francisco Giants’ Yusmeiro Petit in 2014. His bid for perfection and Petit’s record ended when Betts, playing shortstop, misplayed Chase Meidroth’s grounder.

Yamamoto’s no-hit pursuit was broken up when Tristan Peters led off the ninth with a homer. Yamamoto, who finished with seven strikeouts, recorded one more out before departing for Alex Vesia, who got the last two outs in the 7-1 win.

The victory Friday continued a mini-surge for the Dodgers, who have won five of their past six games after posting a 6-5 record in their first 11 games of the month.

Prior to hosting the Orioles, Los Angeles swept a three-game set from the Tampa Bay Rays. The Dodgers sandwiched comeback wins around a 1-0 victory Tuesday.

“We’re just stacking wins,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “The most important thing is to win baseball games, but we haven’t really played well. I say that in a positive way that we’re still winning a lot of baseball games.”

The Dodgers won Friday without two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani, whose wife, Mamiko, gave birth to the couple’s second child. Ohtani posted the news of the baby’s birth to his Instagram account early Saturday morning, thanking his child “for being born safely.” He included a photo of the newborn’s feet sticking out from a blue blanket.

Roberts said Ohtani was not placed on the paternity list and is expected to play this weekend, perhaps even Saturday.

Yamamoto also almost threw a no-hitter in his lone start against the Orioles last Sept. 6, but Jackson Holliday recorded Baltimore’s first hit with a two-out, ninth-inning homer to begin a stunning comeback in a 4-3 victory after being down 3-0. Yamamoto didn’t factor into the decision after walking two and striking out 10.

Rogers took the loss in his most recent start last Monday, when he allowed two runs over six innings as the Orioles fell to the San Diego Padres, 5-2.

Rogers is 0-0 with a 3.48 ERA in two career starts against the Dodgers.

–Field Level Media

Before Houston’s Jose Altuve flipped the opener of a three-game series against the Cleveland Guardians with a three-run homer in the sixth inning, he struck out twice in two at-bats, the first of which ended with Altuve slamming his bat and helmet into the turf in disgust.

Altuve will look to lead the host Astros to a series victory against the Guardians on Saturday night.

Altuve powered Houston to a 9-3 win on Friday by going 2-for-4 with four RBIs. He snapped an 0-for-12 drought with his eighth home run of the season, a skid that included him batting only .158 over his first 11 games off the injured list dating to June 5.

“He knows he is better than what he’s showing right now,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “And he’s getting to that point where he wants to come through for the team, and we know eventually it’s going to happen.

“I love the fact that he threw his helmet, by the way. That really fired me up.”

Altuve followed his home run with an RBI double in the seventh inning off Guardians reliever Daniel Espino, a 385-foot shot to left-center field that would’ve been a homer in eight other ballparks.

“I actually liked the double off Espino in the seventh inning,” Espada said. “I think that was more impressive because that was 99 (mph) up in the zone, and he was able to be down on time and get on top of it and hit it off the wall.

“When he’s down on time and able to make his adjustments, he can drive the ball to any part of the field.”

Altuve is batting .234 with 20 RBIs in 54 games this season for the Astros, who will start right-hander Spencer Arrighetti (7-2, 2.57 ERA) on Saturday.

Arrighetti was the pitcher of record in a 4-0 road loss to the Kansas City Royals on Sunday after allowing four runs on eight hits and one walk with seven strikeouts across six innings.

He is 0-1 with a 6.19 ERA in three starts this month after earning American League Pitcher of the Month honors for May, when he finished 4-1 with an 0.93 ERA across five starts.

Arrighetti is 1-0 with a 2.77 ERA in three career appearances (two starts) against the Guardians. He allowed two runs on five hits and four walks with three strikeouts across five innings in the Astros’ 9-2 road win over Cleveland on April 20.

Left-hander Joey Cantillo (5-3, 4.38 ERA) has the starting assignment for the Guardians on Saturday.

Cantillo earned a 3-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers last Saturday after allowing one run on six hits with four strikeouts over five innings. Despite the win, Cantillo posted his sixth consecutive start without logging at least six innings, going 2-2 with a 6.75 ERA during that stretch. He has recorded at least 18 outs only twice in 15 starts this season.

Cantillo is 0-1 with a 7.04 ERA in two career starts against the Astros. In his previous appearance against them, Castillo allowed three runs on five hits and three walks with seven strikeouts in four innings but did not factor into the decision of a 10-6 road win last July 8.

On Friday, the Guardians switched Kyle Manzardo to designated hitter and Rhys Hoskins to first base after Manzardo complained of back tightness upon arriving at the ballpark.

“We thought nine innings in the field is probably not the best thing when you’re dealing with back tightness,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “Nothing alarming. We just thought it was a smart switch since they were both in the lineup already.”

–Field Level Media