Things did not look overly promising in the first inning, however. After a leadoff double, Jose Bautista singled to score Anthony Gose, putting the Blue Jays ahead four pitches into Hellickson’s outing. Then, things appeared to turn around for the Rays. Edwin Encarnacion flew out to left, and Kelly Johnson gunned down Bautista at second for the double play.

From that point on, Hellickson began cruising through the Toronto lineup. His curveball looked as sharp as it had been, and he had excellent command over the last few innings. Most importantly, he limited the amount of pitches he threw, attacking hitters and throwing strikes. This was the Hellickson that we had been waiting for.

The Rays took the lead in the third, putting runners on first and second with two out. Ryan Roberts hit a slow grounder for an infield hit that Macier Itzuris tried to grab with his bare hand, but missed the ball, allowing a run to score and putting runners on first and third. Ben Zobrist followed with a single, putting the Rays ahead 2-1.

Hellickson made one mistake the rest of the way, and Bautista jumped all over it, hammering the pitch into the second deck to tie the game. But Hellickson bounced back, lasting a season high eight innings, giving up only two runs on four hits and a walk, striking out four. Even if the strikeout totals were not impressive, Hellickson still had his best start of the season, which is even more outstanding considering how he gave up eight runs in his last start.

Tampa took the lead in the ninth, as Evan Longoria doubled with one out, bringing up James Loney. Loney singled, bringing home Longoria as the Rays took the 3-2 lead. With Fernando Rodney ready to close out the game, the Rays appeared to be following their formula for success, with timely hitting and excellent pitching.

Unfortunately, Rodney again was unable to replicate his performance last year. Buatista struck yet again, taking a 3-2 pitch from Rodney and depositing it in left to tie the game. After a one out walk, Rodney left, having blown his fourth save in thirteen chances. In the bottom of the tenth, the Rays defense let them down. Loney was originally given an error on what would later be changed to an infield hit for Colby Rasmus to lead off the inning against Ceasr Ramos. A sacrifice and a groundout put Rasmus on third with two outs. Following a walk to pinch hitter Mark DeRosa, Kyle Farnsworth came in to face Jose Bautista. Given how Farnsworth has looked this season, the matchup went as expected, with Bautista singling to right to drive in the game winning run as the Rays fell 4-3.

Baustita was a one man wrecking crew, having four of the Blue Jays seven hits as he went 4-4 with two home runs, a walk and four RBIs. It definitely stands to wonder why Bautista was not intentionally walked in that situation, as neither his run nor DeRosa’s meant anything at that point, and why Farnsworth was brought in to face him.

For the Rays, Jose Molina was 2-4 with a run scored against his old team.

Hellickson has allowed a scary 1.6 HR/9 and 23% line drive percentage as he just keeps missing with his fastball and other pitches. Known for his ability to locate his pitches right on the edges of the zone, Hellickson has somehow lost that on his fastball, allowing nearly three times as many flyballs than groundballs on his fastball, the worst mark of his career. On his changeup, it has been very good overall, but he is making mistakes with it and allowing too much hard contact as he’s relying on it too much knowing he can’t locate his fastball. Hellickson’s batting average on balls in play this year is .287, right around league average, after registering at .224 and .264 the last two years, and that could be viewed as regression to the mean. It’s not–Hellickson is just failing to execute his pitches consistently enough, leading to hard contact. It has little to do with luck.

How can Hellickson fix this? He just has to find a way to get his fastball command back on track to set up his entire repertoire, and his home run and line drive rates will go down along with his ERA. His pitches are moving as dynamically as ever and he’s throwing them for strikes, and now he just has to do a better job spotting them down in the zone and on the corners to beat major league hitters on a more regular basis. His entire career, Hellickson’s command has been one of the reasons he has stood out as a pitcher. If he can just return to that, he will absolutely fine. And if he can get his command back on track, that career year we were talking about above may just be in the works.

The Rays scored quickly, as Matthew Joyce scored on a sacrifice fly in the first inning as Tampa struck first. But the Orioles came right back, taking the lead on a two run single from Chris Davis in the bottom of the inning. They extended the lead on J.J. Hardy‘s solo home run to lead off the second, and the orioles were ahead 3-1. Things did not look positive for the Rays, as Hellickson was having issues commanding his curveball, and appeared to be struggling through the first two innings.

Then the Rays offense came alive against Orioles starter Jason Hammel. Tampa cut the lead to one in the top of the third, then Kelly Johnson hit a two out, three run home run after a borderline pitch on 2-2 was called a ball to put the Rays ahead 5-3. They scored four more in the fifth, with Johnson getting an RBI single (and getting thrown out trying to stretch it into a double) to chase Hammel. Alex Burnett came in to try to eat up some outs, but essentially poured petrol on the fire. Following a walk, Yunel Escobar hit a ground rule double to plate another run, and Desmond Jennings followed with a two run single to put the Rays on top 9-3. Hammel ended up lasting 4.2 innings, and gave up seven runs on ten hits and two walks.

Hellickson had settled in, and was cruising along, throwing strikes and working quickly. He gave up a run in the bottom of the fifth, but the Rays scored three more times in the top of the sixth as they had a 12-4 lead heading into the eighth inning. A lead off triple turned into a run on a groundout, and the orioles had a runner on first with two out. Unfortunately, Hellickson ran out of steam, as Davis doubled to deep center, putting runners on second and third. Matt Wieters followed with a two run single, as Hellickson was removed in favor of Kyle Farnsworth. Like Burnett for the Orioles, Farnsworth provided no relief. After a base hit, Chris Dickerson hit his first home run of the year to cut the lead to 12-10. What seemed like a certain victory had now come into question.

Following a base hit, Farnsworth was removed, and Joel Peralta came in. Peralta was able to stop the bleeding, recording the last four outs to preserve the Rays 12-10 victory. Hellickson earned the win, giving up eight runs on ten hits and a walk in 7.2 innings. While the line may not be pretty, Hellickson did what he needed to do – get outs and do his best to preserve the bullpen.

Johnson had a big game for the Rays, going 3-5 with a double, a home run, four RBIs and two runs scored. Every Ray in the starting lineup had at least one hit, and were on base at least twice, as the Rays clobbered Orioles pitching for 17 hits and five walks.