Going into Sunday’s ballgame, Baltimore needed one of two things to happen: the Texas Rangers had to lose against the Cleveland Guardians, or the Orioles had to win their game against the Tampa Bay Rays. Luckily, after a night of back and forth, both things worked out in Baltimore’s favor. Now, the O’s are that much closer to ending their 40-year hiatus from the World Series. But during the game, this magical win was improbable.
The first inning saw Brandon Lowe of the Rays score a homer and the Orioles failed to answer. But the Rays struggled to maintain momentum as they didn’t score in the second or third innings, though, not for a lack of effort as Yandy Díaz was only stopped from a homerun by a tagout by fan favorite Gunnar Henderson. The Orioles also came close to tying up the game as Adley Rutschman had a jaw-dropping hit which was unfortunately stopped by a diving catch from Díaz.
In the bottom of the fourth, Austin Hays tied up the game with an RBI single. But after that, the game hit a lull as neither team scored again until after the seventh inning-stretch. In this period of the game, many fans were seen “resting their eyes” as they waited for the next big moment where the rest of the crowd would wake them up.
Fortunately, that big moment was right around the corner, in the top of the eighth, when Tristan Gray scored the second point for the Rays, which was closely followed by Christian Bethancourt’s solo homer that brought the game to 3-1. This point must have fueled the Orioles to ramp things up because this is when the game took a turn and the action of it all became entertaining.
Suddenly, as fans watched from the edge of their seats, Rutschman batted a homerun against a 100.0mph fastball, which brought the game to 3-2. This was the fastest pitch an O’s player has scored off of since 2008. Rutsch continued to come in clutch as he tagged out Lowe at home, stopping a 4th Rays’ point. The Orioles seemed to find their groove after this as Adam Frazier tied up the game with an RBI double.
Then, in the ninth inning, both teams remained in a standstill, 3-3. So, the extra innings began. But, with the addition of the new MLB rules, fans were actually happy to sit and watch this play out. With the new set of rules, pitches had 15 seconds to throw when bases were empty and 20 seconds when there were runners on the bases, which allowed the total game time to go down.
At the top of the tenth, Harold Ramirez brought the Rays back on top with a hit from his teammate that allowed him to score. The Orioles responded in the bottom of the 11th as Henderson finally got a point on the board.
The Rays attempted to pull ahead again but failed in series of events that had to be studied by the umps for what felt like 10 minutes but in reality, was only three. Brandon Lowe came up to bat, he hit, he ran and eventually was thrown out by Ryan O’Hearn.
The game wasn’t quite over yet as the O’s and Rays were yet again tied. But Cedric Mullins and Rutsch worked together and scored the game winning point with a sacrifice fly by Mullins that allowed Rutsch to tag up on the fly ball and make the final score 5-4.
