BALTIMORE—For seven innings, the Orioles’ offensive was dormant. They had held the Tampa Bay Rays to two runs but hadn’t scored any.
In the bottom of the eighth, Samuel Basallo came off the bench to hit a two-run home run to tie it, and in the bottom of the 10th, Dylan Beavers delivered a pinch-hit double to score automatic runner Leody Taveras for an exciting 3-2 Orioles win before 27,158 on Saturday night.
With the win, the Orioles (63-67) moved back to within one game of the Texas Rangers, who are currently in the third wild-card spot.
Rico Garcia (5-1) played an important role in the win. With automatic runner Richie Palacios on third, Garcia fielded Taylor Walls’ one-out bunt and flipped it to catcher Carlos Narváez for the tag for the second out of the top of the 10th.
Beavers, who had homered in three straight games, lifted a 2-2 changeup from Bryan Baker (1-2) that hit off the wall in right-center to score Taveras.
It was Beavers’ fourth walk-off hit, and it came after a discussion with manager Craig Albernaz.
“I was trying to move him over,” Beavers said. “I asked him, ‘You want me to bunt him over or swing?’ And he told me, ‘I trust you more than anybody. Go take an at-bat, get something you can get to the pull side and move him over.’”
Basallo pinch-hit for Coby Mayo, who had a double and single in the first three innings, and homered against Kevin Kelly to center. The Orioles have 33 pinch-hit RBIs.
“It’s a great asset,” Albernaz said. “All of our players do something special in this game and we want to utilize it to our advantage when we can when it pops up for the game. And our guys do a great job of staying prepared, staying locked in. They know when not in the starting lineup, they know they can impact the game that night.”
Basallo, who missed a month with right shoulder inflammation, had been just 1-for-10 since his return on Wednesday.
“It felt really good being able to come back from the injury and being able to help the team right there,” Basallo said through a team translator “Being able to help the team get that win right there made it feel even better. And, no, I didn’t think it was gone right away. I feel like I’ve hit the ball well a few times this year and it hasn’t gone out, so once I hit it, I just tried to run out of the box as fast as I could.”
Liam Hicks hit his 17th home run in the second against Oriole starter Brandon Young. Junior Caminero’s RBI single scored Yandy Diaz in the sixth. Tyler O’Neill, who was stellar on defense, prevented the inning from becoming worse. His strong throw to third was in time to get Walls, who tried to advance on Diaz’s single.
In the ninth, O’Neill made a diving catch on Palacio’s sinking liner to right. Had it fallen in, Jonny DeLuca would have scored with the go-ahead run.
Young gave up two runs on six hits in 5 2/3 innings, walking three and striking out three.
Tampa Bay starter Shane McClanahan pitched five scoreless innings, allowing four hits.
In the first, Pete Alonso extended his career-long hitting streak to 14 games with a single..
The Orioles are 8-4 against Tampa Bay (76-53).
How big was this win? With just five weeks and 32 games left in the season, and so many teams still in the wild-card mix, each game is vital.
“We’re in the wild-card race and we’re trying to win every game we can,” Beavers said. “Last year, I had just gotten to the big leagues, so it was pretty awesome then, too, even though people could argue we were out of it. But it’s definitely really meaningful this year with this group of guys because we’ve faced a good bit of adversity and I think we all have a belief that we can have success. So just trying to build momentum and go on a run here.”
Young pitched well but got no support.
“It’s awesome. Like I said before, countless times, this team doesn’t give up,” Young said. “I feel great. They picked me up countless times before and you know, we got a couple more months of baseball left, too.”
What does it mean? There were excellent plays by O’Neill and a great job by the bullpen. Josh Walker, Alex Hoppe, Andrew Kittredge and Garcia combined for 4 2/3 scoreless innings with two hits and no walks.
What’s the stat of the day? 4. Beavers joined five other players, including Christian Encarnacion-Strand, who have four walk-off hits in their first 110 games.
What’s the word? “Now at the end, every game feels like it matters more, and every win really matters right now for us. So, we’re going out there and doing the best we can every single night to try to get a win.”-Basallo on the importance of the win
What’s going on in the minor leagues? JT Quinn pitched five innings, allowing two runs on five hits to lift Double-A Chesapeake to a 4-3 win over Richmond. Fernando Peguero and Colin Tuft homered.
High-A Frederick lost to Wilmington, 1-0. Twine Palmer allowed an unearned run. The Keys had just five hits.
Brayan Orrantia allowed three runs on four hits in five innings as Single-A Delmarva lost to Hickory, 7-2. Orrantia’s record is 1-9.
Triple-A Norfolk’s doubleheader with Nashville was rained out, the second straight postponement. They’ll play a doubleheader on Sunday.
What’s next? Shane Baz (4-13, 4.02) will start against Nick Martinez (12-4, 3.05) on Sunday at 1:35 p.m.
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