Folks. What was this baseball game???
I cannot believe what I just saw. The Orioles just won a game against the best team in baseball in which they were shut out until the seventh inning, then trailed by two runs in the 11th inning, then trailed by a run in the 12th, then trailed by two runs again in the 13th.
It was without question the gutsiest victory of the year for the Orioles, who badly needed one. At every turn, the O’s could have packed it in and accepted defeat. Instead they pulled out every trick in the book, battling back from every disadvantage — with help, admittedly, from a Rays team that couldn’t play defense — to scrape and claw their way back into the game. And Colton Cowser, for the second straight day, provided the decisive blow with a walkoff home run, finally bringing this roller coaster of a game to a close after 13 innings and 4 hours, 12 minutes of utter madness.
I suppose we’ll start at the beginning, but keep reading for all the fun stuff later on. Though both starters were long gone by the time this game ended, Kyle Bradish and Shane McClanahan were equally dominant today. Bradish showed a knack for making big pitches to get out of jams. In the third, with two on and two out, Bradish blew away Jonathan Aranda on a 3-2 fastball. A similar situation played out two innings later when the Rays put a runner at second before Bradish fanned the dangerous Junior Caminero on a 3-2 pitch, this time a nasty slider. If it hasn’t been said already, Kyle Bradish is so back.
The Orioles’ offense, though, had all sorts of trouble with McClanahan, and they didn’t do themselves any favors with dreadful baserunning. They were picked off not once but twice in the first six innings, starting with Blaze Alexander in the third. Later, in the sixth, with two on and one out, Gunnar Henderson drifted too far off second base. McClanahan fired to the bag and caught Henderson in a rundown, where he was eventually tagged out. Oh, come on, Gunnar. Pinch-hitter Samuel Basallo grounded out to end the threat, and the O’s had blundered themselves out of a great scoring opportunity.
As the scoreless duel entered the sixth inning, the only question was which pitcher would make a mistake first. Unfortunately, the answer was Bradish, who hung a slider to Aranda that he crushed into the right-field seats for his ninth home run. Sigh. One bad pitch amidst an otherwise great effort. Bradish ultimately worked six strong innings, giving up just one run. He struck out three and walked two, both of which were Cedric Mullins, who received a nice ovation from the Camden Yards crowd in his return to Baltimore as a visitor.
Happily, the bottom of the seventh also featured some baserunning adventures that turned out much better for the Birds, with help from terrible Rays defense. Leody Taveras led off with a walk and stole second base. With Alexander at the plate, reliever Hunter Bigge whirled around and tried to pick off Taveras — and truthfully, he would’ve had him out, for the Orioles’ third picked off runner of the day, if shortstop Taylor Walls had been able to catch the ball cleanly. But he didn’t, and it rolled into center field, allowing Taveras to scramble to third.
The O’s took full advantage of the lucky break. On the next pitch, Alexander laced a single to left to plate Taveras with the tying run, finally giving the Camden Yards crowd something to cheer about. But the fun didn’t stop there. With two outs, Taylor Ward roped a single to right. Alexander aggressively tried to get to third, and again a good throw would’ve gotten him, but Victor Mesa Jr. airmailed the ball so wildly that it sailed out of play, automatically awarding Alexander home plate. That’s a heck of a way to score the go-ahead run. I’ll gladly take it. The Orioles have been on the wrong end of shoddy defensive plays many times this year, so it’s nice when it happens to the other team.
The Orioles had taken an improbable lead and the ballpark was rocking, but the O’s immediately blew it. Manager Craig Albernaz made the curious decision to replace Yennier Cano (ERA: 1.40) with Anthony Nunez (ERA: 4.94), even though Cano had thrown just six pitches and faced one batter in the seventh. Make it make sense. Sure enough, Nunez coughed up a double and an RBI single, and with that the game was tied again.
Rico Garcia did his darnedest to keep the game tied, pitching both the ninth and tenth innings and throwing a season-high 32 pitches. Garcia pulled off a great escape in the 10th with the bases loaded and one out, striking out Richie Palacios before a Mullins sizzling liner was nabbed by Alonso at first. Again, the Orioles were fired up, the crowd was alive, and the O’s had every opportunity to win the game.
And again, they blew it, even with a free runner on second to start the bottom of the 10th. Colton Cowser tried to bunt Jackson Holliday to third, but his bunt landed so close to pitcher Ian Seymour that Holliday held at second, thinking it would be caught. So it just ended up as a useless out at first base. Come on, guys! Then the Rays elected to intentionally walk Ward to purposely face Gunnar Henderson with the winning run at second. How far Gunnar’s stature has fallen. Even worse: it worked, as Henderson flailed at an outside pitch for a strikeout, and Rutschman grounded out to send the game to the 11th.
The air had deflated from the Orioles’ balloon, and when Mesa led off the top of the 11th with a two-run homer off Tyler Wells, it looked like the Birds were cooked. But the game took another ridiculous turn in the bottom half of the inning. Alonso smacked a leadoff single to left. Rutschman, the automatic runner, was bizarrely waved to the plate, even though the O’s were down by two runs. I don’t know why Buck Britton sent him there, but it worked out, as Chandler Simpson’s throw was so off-line that Alonso got to second on the play.
The next batter, Jeremiah Jackson, ripped a shot off the glove of the third baseman and into shallow left. Once again Britton aggressively challenged Simpson’s weak arm. The throw to the plate beat Alonso, but catcher Nick Fortes couldn’t hang on, and Alonso slid in safely. WE ARE TIED! Unbelievable! What is this game??
The O’s had a chance to win it right there, as Taveras bunted Jackson to third with one out, but they couldn’t advance him the final 90 feet. The southpaw Seymour racked up a huge strikeout of Holliday and retired Cowser on a flyout to leave Jackson stranded. Spoiler: Colton would redeem himself later.
Right away, the Rays went back ahead in the 12th when long flyouts from Caminero and Aranda moved the automatic runner, Simpson, to third and then home. Again the O’s faced a deficit, 5-4. But again, they came rallying back. A Ward flyout moved Cowser, the Manfred Man, to third base with one out, giving Henderson a chance to redeem himself from his 10th-inning failure.
He did! …Sort of. Henderson smacked a hard shot to first, with Aranda making a quick-reflexed stop. He immediately fired home to Fortes, who tagged the sliding Cowser at the plate. Umpire Ryan Additon called Cowser out, but the O’s immediately challenged. Replay appeared to show that Cowser got his left hand in before the tag from Fortes, but since it didn’t seem 100% conclusive, I assumed they’d uphold the call. I’m happy to report that I was wrong. The call was reversed, Cowser was safe, and we were tied again. Holy moley. This became just the second MLB game this year to go to the 13th inning.
The Rays’ offense just kept coming. With Dietrich Enns on the mound in the 13th, Palacios reached on a bunt single and Mullins beat his former team with a soft RBI single to left. A Fortes sac fly later in the inning made it a 7-5 game, and this time, for sure, the Orioles were cooked. Right? …Right?
WRONG! The Orioles had one more, magical comeback left in them against Rays righty Jesse Scholtens. Taveras roped a double into the corner to lead off the 13th, scoring the free runner, and Alexander’s single to center set up runners at the corners with nobody out. Oh my gosh, are we doing this again? You bet we are. Holliday came through with a productive out, a sac fly to center to bring home Taveras. We are tied again, 7-7. This is insane.
It was about time for somebody to step up and win this game, and look no further than the guy who did exactly that just one day earlier, Cowser. On a 2-1 pitch — on a slider! — Cowser clobbered one to deep center field. He’s done it again! It sailed into the bleachers not far from where his Sunday walkoff landed. Home run. Orioles win, 9-7. The Orioles erupted out of the dugout with high-fives and hugs and Gatorade baths for the hero, in disbelief at the game they’d just played.
What. A. Win. The atmosphere at Oriole Park after the walkoff was electric, and that included the Orioles players, who celebrated on the field with the kind of childlike enthusiasm and sheer joy that we’ve so rarely gotten to see this season. This was the kind of game that the 2023 Orioles would’ve won, and I really hope it can spark some inspired, energetic, winning baseball from the O’s going forward. (I don’t want to hear that it’s unrealistic. Let me have my moment.)
Well, folks. Have you decompressed from this one yet? Who gets your vote for Most Birdland Player if not Cowser? Pete Alonso for his three clutch hits? Kyle Bradish for his impressive start? Rico Garcia for his two gutsy innings of relief? Let us know in the comments!
