Baltimore spent most of the night chasing the game, then let its bench finish the job.
Samuel Basallo tied it with a pinch-hit homer in the eighth, Tyler O’Neill saved the game with a pair of defensive gems in the ninth, and Dylan Beavers delivered the walk-off double in the 10th as the Orioles beat the Rays 3-2 and secured another series win over the first-place club.
The late surge covered for an offense that had been blanked for seven innings and for a start from Brandon Young that was good enough to keep Baltimore alive. Young didn’t have his sharpest stuff, but he did better than he had against Tampa last week. He opened the game by allowing the first two hitters to reach, then worked out of trouble with a pop out and an inning-ending double play.
Liam Hicks got to him in the second with a home run to start the inning, but Young answered with another double play and limited the damage to one run. After that, the right-hander settled in and retired the next eight batters he faced. Cedric Mullins drew a two-out walk in the fifth, though Carlos Narváez erased him trying to steal second.
Tampa Bay stretched the lead to 2-0 in the sixth. Young walked Taylor Walls to begin the inning, then watched Yandy Díaz single to right before Tyler O’Neill fired a strike to third and caught Walls trying to take the extra base.
Young got Jonathan Aranda for the second out, but Chandler Simpson’s infield single moved Díaz along and Junior Caminero followed with a run-scoring hit up the middle. Young exited after 5.2 innings, and Josh Walker finished the frame by retiring Ryan Vilade.
Baltimore had chances before it finally broke through. In the first, Coby Mayo doubled with Pete Alonso running, but Alonso slid into second before realizing Mayo had hit the ball and never scored on the play.
He reached third with fewer than two outs, then stayed put on a shallow fly ball from O’Neill before Gunnar Henderson struck out to end the inning. Mayo and Alonso put themselves in scoring position again in the third, only for O’Neill to fly out and strand them.
The breakthrough came in the eighth. Jackson Holliday opened the inning with a single off Kevin Kelly’s sinker, and after Kelly struck out Alonso, Craig Albernaz made the move that changed the night.
Basallo came off the bench for Mayo and quickly got ahead in the count before launching a 411-foot game-tying homer on a sinker. The ball cleared a jumping Cedric Mullins and suddenly the Orioles had life.
O’Neill then kept it tied in the ninth. He raced down a hard line drive from Caminero for one out, then Andrew Kittredge induced a grounder from Kenny Piper.
Jonny DeLuca doubled to left to keep the Rays moving, but Richie Palacios sent up a soft fly to right that looked dangerous until O’Neill charged in and made a diving catch. Baltimore went quietly in the bottom of the inning, sending the game to extras.
In the 10th, the Orioles got the stop they needed. Mullins moved the designated runner to third with a ground ball, then Taylor Walls tried to bunt Palacios home.
Rico Garcia handled the squeeze cleanly and flipped to the plate to cut down the potential go-ahead run. Garcia then worked back from a 3-0 count against Díaz and ended the inning with a fly out to left.
That set up Beavers in the bottom half. Craig Albernaz sent him up to pinch hit for Narváez, and the rookie kept the bench magic going against former Oriole Bryan Baker.
Beavers fell behind 0-2, took two fastballs off the plate, then stayed on a changeup below the knees and drove it to right center. The ball bounced off the wall, Leody Taveras scored without a play, and the Orioles had their 3-2 win.
The MASN booth initially thought Beavers had left the yard, but a double was enough. Baltimore moved to 63-67 and will try for the sweep tomorrow afternoon with Shane Baz set to face Nick Martinez.
In Other News...
Orioles Put Samuel Basallo In A Huge Spot And He Delivered
Samuel Basallo was back from the injured list and immediately thrust into one of the biggest spots of the Orioles night, coming off the bench with Baltimore needing a spark against Tampa Bay. The rookie responded with his first career pinch-hit home run, a two-run drive that tied the game in the eighth inning and flipped the energy in a matchup the Orioles had been grinding through all night.
The swing became the setup for a 3-2 walk-off win and added another layer to Baltimores recent success against the Rays, who have now dropped eight of the last nine meetings between the teams this season. For an Orioles club looking for depth to matter down the stretch, Basallos return and his instant impact offered exactly the kind of timely boost that can change the feel of a game, even if the bigger questions around how he fits remain for another day. [Read more 🡒]
Felix Bautistas First Orioles Test Raised A Tough Bullpen Question
Felix Bautistas first game action for Double-A Chesapeake after multiple surgeries gave the Orioles a long-awaited look at where one of their biggest bullpen pieces stands. The right-hander, coming back from a rotator cuff and labrum repair, got into a brief outing that was as much about evaluation as results, and it came against the backdrop of Baltimore trying to piece together late-inning work any way it can.
Bautista showed the kind of rust you would expect after such a long layoff, with his control and velocity both in question as he walked several batters before leaving early. For the Orioles, the important part is not just that he is pitching again, but whether he can get back to a level that makes him a real option for MLB competition, which is the central bullpen question hanging over the club right now. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Prospect Stole The Spotlight On A Strange Norfolk Night
A strange night across the Orioles farm system ended with a spotlight falling on Leandro Arias, who was named the Orioles Hangout MiLB Player of the Day after helping the Keys to a win. Arias went 1 for 3 with a home run, drove in two runs, scored once and also took a pitch, a tidy all-around line in a game that stood out more for what happened elsewhere in the organization than for any one box score.
Norfolk, meanwhile, took a rough doubleheader loss to the Nashville Sounds, with Aron Estrada supplying one of the brighter moments by leaving the yard and Vance Honeycutt swiping three bases. The pitching side had its own swings, from Felix Bautista giving up three runs in a third of an inning to Boston Bateman throwing three scoreless frames, a reminder that even on an odd night, the Orioles system kept producing both highlights and headaches. [Read more 🡒]