Orioles’ Cowser does it again in wild walk-off win, 9-7 over Rays, in 13 innings
· Yahoo Sports
BALTIMORE — The Orioles played 31 innings in the span of 31 hours.
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In the 31st inning Monday, they came through with their most gritty win of the season, defeating the Rays in extra innings, 9-7. And for the second straight day, the game ended on a Colton Cowser walk-off home run.
The marathon, back-and-forth roller coaster of a contest needed 13 innings to settle the winner, featuring three times as many runs scored in extras as during the first nine frames. Both teams handed out blows, committed blunders and delivered big hits, but it was the Orioles in the end — and Cowser’s suddenly clutch bat — who did just enough to win the game.
Cowser spent most of the first six weeks of the season slumping, but the star player he showed he can be in 2024 has begun to emerge. His three-run, walk-off long ball handed the Orioles a come-from-behind win Sunday afternoon against the Tigers in the first game of their doubleheader.
Twenty-three innings later, Cowser did it again, launching a Jesse Scholtens slider 425 feet to right-center field to break the tie and send the 22,388 fans at Camden Yards home happy. Like Sunday, Cowser waited to make sure the ball would leave the yard, and then he chucked his bat in excitement before rounding the bases and getting Gatorade dumped on him at home plate.
Cowser is the first Orioles player with walk-off home runs on consecutive days since Fred Lynn on May 10-11, 1985.
After the game was tied at 2 through nine innings, Rico Garcia tossed a second straight scoreless inning, escaping a bases-loaded jam in the 10th to put the Orioles’ offense in a prime position. But the bats couldn’t come through despite the automatic runner starting the frame on second base. Tyler Wells then gave up a two-run homer to begin the 11th, but Pete Alonso and Jeremiah Jackson came through with RBI singles to send the game to the 12th. The Rays scored the zombie runner in the 12th off Wells, but the Orioles did the same. Dietrich Enns allowed two runs in the 13th, but the Orioles put up four runs to defeat the American League East-best Rays (34-17).
Baltimore is 24-30 and has won three of its past four games since being swept by the Rays in Florida last week.
Long before the pandemonium, Kyle Bradish took the mound to start for the Orioles.
The Orioles’ rotation entered Monday with an American League-worst 5.04 ERA, and Bradish is a reason why, posting a 5.03 ERA through his first seven starts of the season. But he’s pitched like himself over his past four starts.
Facing the Rays for the second time in a week, Bradish twirled his third quality start this month, tossing six innings of one-run ball. The only run he allowed was on a Jonathan Aranda homer in the sixth inning. The right-hander walked two and struck out three while surrendering five hits.
Over his past four starts, Bradish has a 2.22 ERA with a 1.075 WHIP and a 27% strikeout rate. In other words, he’s pitched like an ace.
The only problem for the Orioles on Monday was that the Rays’ ace was even better. Shane McClanahan tossed 5 1/3 scoreless innings while allowing three hits. The Orioles tagged the former All-Star left-hander for four runs last week, but their bats had more trouble Monday.
The Orioles weren’t able to score until the seventh inning when they pushed two runs across thanks to a small-ball brand of baseball similar to the type the Rays displayed last week.
Leody Taveras walked to begin the inning and stole second. He was nearly picked off, but Rays pitcher Hunter Bigge threw the ball away to allow Taveras to sprint to third. Blaze Alexander then smacked a soft line drive single to left-center field to tie the game.
Taylor Ward then came through clutch with two outs, hitting an opposite-field line drive, and Alexander made an aggressive decision to go first to third on the bases. That paid off, as Rays right fielder Victor Mesa Jr.’s throw was too high, and the ball went out of play, bringing Alexander home to give Baltimore a brief lead.
Orioles reliever Anthony Nunez quickly gave it up, though, after giving up back-to-back hits to Yandy Diaz and Richie Palacios. Nunez finished the eighth without allowing another run, and both teams’ closers — Baltimore’s Garcia, and former Oriole Bryan Baker — fired scoreless ninth innings to send the game to extras.
Garcia was put in an impossible situation in the 10th with speedster Chandler Simpson as the automatic runner on second base. Orioles manager Craig Albernaz used Garcia similarly to how former skipper Brandon Hyde used All-Star closer Félix Bautista, who pitched the ninth and 10th innings four times in 2023.
The 5-foot-9 Garcia filled the 6-foot-8 Mountain’s shoes.
After getting Junior Caminero to ground out, Garcia intentionally walked Aranda and then inadvertently walked Oliver Dunn to load the bases. But as he has often since joining Baltimore in August, he escaped the jam, striking out Palacios and getting Cedric Mullins, the future Orioles Hall of Famer who received a tribute video in his Camden Yards return, to line out.
Wells couldn’t carry over Garcia’s momentum, as he allowed a two-run homer to Victor Mesa Jr., his first hit of the season, to lead off the 11th frame.
But the Orioles’ lineup showed life and tied the game in the bottom half. Alonso and Jackson hit back-to-back singles to left field, and third base coach Buck Britton aggressively sent both runners, who beat the weak throws from Simpson. But the rally ended there. Taveras’ sacrifice bunt moved Jackson to third base, but Jackson Holliday struck out and Cowser flied out to center field.
Wells gave up another run in the 12th, as two warning track flyouts allowed the zombie runner to advance from second to third and then third to home. The Orioles responded with a run in the bottom half, as Cowser, the automatic runner, raced home on a groundout to first base by Gunnar Henderson. Cowser was initially called out, but Albernaz challenged the play, and it was overturned, as replays showed Cowser’s hand touched the plate barely before being tagged by catcher Nick Fortes. Again, though, the Orioles couldn’t walk it off, as Adley Rutschman struck out and Jackson popped out.
The game went to the 13th inning — the Orioles’ first to do so since May, 20, 2022, also against the Rays — and Tampa Bay took a two-run lead off Enns. Mullins smacked an RBI single and Palacios, who reached on a leadoff bunt single that Holliday couldn’t get the out on at his new position of third base, scored on a Mesa sacrifice fly to put the Rays up 7-5.
Taveras quickly cut the Orioles’ deficit in half with an RBI double to lead off the 13th. After an Alexander single, Holliday tied the game with a sacrifice fly, setting up Cowser to be the hero once again.
Around the horn
— After Albert Suárez tossed four scoreless innings in Sunday night’s loss, the Orioles designated him for assignment. He will not be subject to waivers and could be claimed by another team. Suárez, who has a 2.75 ERA across 19 2/3 innings this season, has been DFA’d three times this season. He remained in the organization after the first two.
— Coby Mayo, who was scratched Sunday with low back discomfort, is improving, and manager Craig Albernaz doesn’t think the third baseman will need a stint on the injured list.
— Holliday started against a lefty for the first time Monday. Albernaz said he doesn’t view Holliday as a “platoon player,” but the skipper also wants to make sure the 22-year-old infielder gets some time off as he continues to progress from hamate surgery.
— The Orioles provided multiple injury updates on players via their weekly injury report. Starting pitcher Cade Povich (elbow) is being reassessed to begin a throwing program, while reliever Colin Selby (shoulder) received a platelet-rich plasma injection last week.