Despite the vicious swing that Manny Machado put on Jake Odorizzi’s full-count fastball in the fourth inning of the Orioles’ 11-2 rout of the Tampa Bay Rays Tuesday night, Machado said he wasn’t trying to hit the ball out of the park with the bases loaded.
“I'm just trying to make contact with it, drive a couple runs in,” Machado said after hitting his third career grand slam to cap a six-run inning. “I know that the team on the other side, they're going to battle to the last out, so we got to get as many runs as possible to put us in a good position to let our pitchers do what they do.