Rougned Odor’s slow dribbler in the 11th inning made it through the infield as the Baltimore Orioles completed an improbable comeback to beat the visiting Tampa Bay Rays 7-6 on Sunday afternoon.
Baltimore won the first and third games of the series in extra innings. Odor’s homer won Friday night’s game in 13 innings.
The Orioles were down to their last strike when pinch hitter Austin Hays rapped a two-run single following Ryan Thompson’s balk in the bottom of the ninth on the final batter before a 51-minute weather delay.
Cionel Perez (2-0) pitched two innings for the win.
Isaac Paredes homered in Tampa Bay’s four-run first inning.
Ryan Mountcastle homered for the Orioles.
Adley Rutschman, the 2019 overall No. 1 draft pick, was the designated hitter in his second game for Baltimore and went 1-for-5 and was hit by a pitch. Rutschman became the catcher in the 11th and then scored the winning run in the bottom of the inning.
Dusten Knight (0-1), who was called up from Triple-A Durham earlier in the day, took the loss. He was the ninth pitcher used.
The first three Rays batters reached base, capped by Ji-Man Choi’s RBI infield single that was a liner off Orioles starter Spenser Watkins. Watkins exited with a bruised forearm.
Reliever Joey Krehbiel gave up Paredes’ three-run homer down the left-field line. It was the third home run for Paredes since he was called up from Triple-A Durham less than a week ago.
The Orioles got on the board in the third on Ramon Urias’ run-scoring single and Odor’s double.
Kevin Kiermaier, who scored the game’s first run, drove in a fourth-inning run with a single. Kiermaier scored again in the seventh on Randy Arozarena’s single.
Mountcastle began the bottom of the fifth with a homer, his fifth long ball of the season. It came in his second game back from the injured list.
Baltimore closed to within 6-4 in the seventh, aided by two two-out errors by Tampa Bay.
Manager Kevin Cash of the Rays was ejected in the fifth inning after Choi struck out on a called third strike. It was Cash’s first ejection since 2020.
The Rays received three hits apiece from Choi and Brett Phillips. Tampa Bay had won 28 of its previous 31 matchups with Baltimore dating to 2020.
Tampa Bay played without injured infielders Wander Franco (quad) and Yandy Diaz (shoulder) in the starting lineup, though Franco struck out as a pinch hitter in the 10th. Both players were hurt earlier in the series.
–Field Level Media