On Tuesday night, the Orioles – in perhaps their craziest game played in a long time – outlasted the Tampa Bay Rays, 11-10, in 13 innings. The victory for Baltimore was the 30th of the season and perhaps the most thrilling of the season.
Baltimore’s game on Tuesday night was filled with errors, poor pitching and just a glut of mistakes; however, the offense exploded early on, plus got the big hits at the right time. The game at times looked as if it was going to get out of hand, but the Orioles were lucky not to have been taken further advantage of by the Rays.
You’ve got to give the Rays credit – they hung in there, and they showed on Tuesday night why they are contenders in the American League.
Koji Uehara got the win in relief, and Julio Lugo’s walk-off single to right off reliever Lance Cormier that plated Cesar Izturis made the difference.
The Orioles looked like they were headed to their 64th loss of the season, but they came back in the ninth off a Miguel Tejada two-run single and tied the game at nine. After falling behind – again – they would again tie the game at ten in the 12th off a Scott Moore sacrifice fly.
Baltimore got back-to-back-to-back from homers from Luke Scott, Ty Wigginton and Adam Jones in the second inning, plus, Scott added another homer to put them up 4-1.
However, despite the Orioles sudden surge of offense via the long ball, the Rays kept chipping at the lead and overtook them in the 6th with a four-run inning off starter Jake Arrieta and reliever Jason Berken.
Tampa would score twice more in the 7th; Orioles came in within one, 8-7, thanks to a Miguel Tejada two-run single and Luke Scott RBI-single. The Rays would jump ahead 9-7 in the 8th off a Reid Brignac homer before Tejada’s heroics in the ninth.
A scary moment happened in the first inning as Carl Crawford was hit in the groin area by a pickoff throw by Jake Arrieta. Crawford was tagged out, but fell writhing in pain and he was down for a long time – as much as five minutes or so. I figured he was not wearing a cup considering the obvious, and it’s good to hear there was no damage.
Then again, Crawford says, he won’t be wearing one after this incident either.
Also, First Lady Michelle Obama was in Baltimore to take part in a partnership between the White House and Major League Baseball called “Let’s Move” to battle childhood obesity along with promoting healthy living. She was at the park all day working with the kids, held a press conference, and also worked on some promotion of the event.
Obama was part of the first pitch ceremony, but she didn’t throw a baseball – that part was left to two teenagers who were part of it.
However, the fans in the park – there could not have been more than ten thousand or so at the time – greeted her warmly (I didn’t hear much if any booing) and after the first pitch, she went to both dugouts (Orioles and Rays) and shook the hands of the players, plus staff.
Very classy.
Finally, Mike Gonzalez – who we all know and love – has been recalled to the Major League team, while Josh Bell was sent back to Norfolk along with picher Chris Tillman.
