The Orioles didn’t exactly light up Tanner Gordon, and for most of a rain-soaked night in Denver it looked like they might waste another strong stretch with a flat offensive showing. Instead, they scraped together just enough, then survived a frantic ninth inning thanks to the kind of catch Colton Cowser will be replaying in his head for a long time.
Baltimore beat Colorado 2-1 in a game that turned strange in a hurry. The Orioles managed only one run on three hits through five innings against Gordon, with Samuel Basallo providing the lone damage early.
Then the skies opened around 10 p.m., forcing an hour and 45-minute delay in the middle of a 1-1 game. When the rain finally cleared, Baltimore finished the job, got back to .500 for the first time since April 30, and moved to within a half-game of Cleveland in the wild card race.
The Orioles came out swinging early, which made sense against a pitcher with Gordon’s profile, but that plan didn’t produce much. Gunnar Henderson opened with a 55-mph squibber, and the lineup kept making poor contact as Gordon worked through the first three innings.
The breakthrough came in the fourth, when Dylan Beavers doubled after Gordon missed with a bad changeup. Basallo followed by hammering a changeup 409 feet to the center-field wall, just shy of a home run, and Beavers scored to tie it at 1.
The Orioles didn’t do much after that, but they had life again.
Cade Povich, for his part, had one of those outings that fit his usual pattern. He showed both sides of himself: hittable when he left fastballs up, dangerous when his curveball was working.
He finished with five innings, five hits allowed, one run, three walks and four strikeouts. Colorado pushed across its run in the fourth after Hunter Goodman doubled, TJ Rumfield walked, and Jordan Beck singled on a hittable fastball.
Povich then walked another batter to load the bases before getting a flyout to escape further damage.
Then came the delay, and then the weird part.
After the rain passed, Colorado turned to Mark Manfredi, a recent call-up from Triple-A Albuquerque, and he got through the sixth. But the seventh got away from the Rockies.
Manfredi walked Coby Mayo and Basallo, and after Nick Frasso entered, he walked Blaze Alexander to load the bases with one out. Cowser then grounded into a double play, but Baltimore challenged and won the review.
The call was overturned, Mayo was credited with scoring, and the Orioles had a 2-1 lead.
The replay room helped them again in the sixth, when they challenged a strike-em-out/throw-em-out play that gave Basallo credit for the caught stealing and extended Grant Wolfram’s outing. Wolfram responded with a clean second inning.
Baltimore had a chance to add on in the eighth after a Gunnar Henderson single, but that threat fizzled fast. The game then shifted into pure survival mode.
Alex Hoppe handled the eighth at first, but former Oriole Connor Norby singled and TJ Rumfield walked, forcing a change. Rico Garcia came in and did exactly what Baltimore needed in that moment.
He struck out Willi Castro on three pitches and then induced a flyout on two more pitches. That was a huge cleanup job.
The ninth belonged to Andrew Kittredge, and it nearly turned into a nightmare. Cole Carrigg flew out on the first pitch, but Troy Johnston doubled on another first-pitch swing to put the tying run in scoring position.
Zac Veen then came up as a pinch-hitter and struck out swinging after Kittredge mixed sinkers and a diving slider. That left Jake McCarthy as Colorado’s last shot.
McCarthy launched one to center that looked, for a moment, like it might change everything. Instead, Cowser went up and took it away with a leaping catch at the wall. It was the catch of his life, and it sealed the win.
With Cleveland off, Baltimore ended the day back at .500 and a half-game out of a wild card spot. It wasn’t clean, and it wasn’t pretty. But it was a win, and Cowser made sure it stayed that way.
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For Vzquez, the move leaves his immediate future unsettled after a brief stay on the major league roster and only limited big league experience behind him. If he goes unclaimed, Baltimore could end up with another decision to make, but for now the attention shifts to Robert and how the Orioles plan to use him as they continue to tweak the roster around their latest wave of movement. [Read more 🡒]