Baker’s nightmare 8th dooms Orioles, as Baltimore falls to Mets 7-6 in extra innings

The usually reliable Baker allowed four runs without getting an out and the O’s couldn’t muster any offense in the 9th or 10th as New York scored a come-from-behind win.

Bryan Baker surrendered a four-run lead in the 8th and Yennier Cano couldn’t keep the Mets off the board in the 10th, as the Orioles fell 7-6 against New York in extra innings.

With the O’s up 6-2 in the top of the 8th, Tony Mansolino turned to the usually reliable Baker against the top of the Mets order. Brandon Nimmo led off the inning with a single to center field, and then All-Star Francisco Lindor jumped on a 1-0 fastball, sending it over the center field fence.

Baker tried to regroup, but things only got worse against Juan Soto and Pete Alonso. Soto turned a fastball in on his hands into a single to right. Baker would get ahead of Alonso with a first pitch slider that the Mets’ 1B fouled off. He then tried to go back to the slider, but it didn’t break enough and the two-time HR Derby champ blasted it into the right-center bleachers to tie the game at six.

The game remained tied after Félix Bautista struck out the side in the 9th, but his buddy Cano couldn’t repeat that feat in the 10th. With Lindor on second as the Manfred Man, Soto jumped on a first pitch changeup from Cano, peppering it into center and giving the Mets a one-run advantage.

The Orioles’ former set-up man would work out of a bases-loaded jam to get things at 7-6, giving Jordan Westburg, Gunnar Henderson and Ryan O’Hearn a chance to tie the game in the bottom of the 10th. Instead, Westburg struck out swinging, Gunnar popped up to third and O’Hearn grounded out to second as New York handed the O’s their 50th loss of the season.

At one point, the Orioles’ win looked inevitable after a four-run 6th saw them pull ahead of the Mets. After the Mets took a 2-1 lead in the top of the 6th, Jackson Holliday kicked off the Orioles’ rally when Clay Holmes hit him on a back-foot slider. Westburg and Henderson then flipped a pair of softly hit singles into left and center field to load the bases.

That brought O’Hearn to the plate with no outs and the bags full, and the O’s lone All-Star did what he does best: Turn and Burn. O’Hearn turned on a slider over the middle of the plate and sent a ball burning down the right field line into the corner, scoring both Holliday and Westburg and giving the O’s a 3-2 lead.

The O’Hearn double brought Ramón Laureano to the plate with runners at second and third. The Orioles outfielder would end Holmes’ night, taking a sweeper on the outside corner and slapping it into left-center to plate both runners and give Baltimore a 5-2 lead. The Laureano single ended Holmes’ night without him recording an out in the 6th, as the O’s finally got to the former Yankees All-Star.

Holliday then gave Baltimore what looked like the only insurance run they’d need with a big fly in the 7th. One pitch before, Ben McDonald was praising Holliday’s recent hot streak and said “he can really turn on [98mph fastball here].” Instead, Holliday got a 97mph fastball and promptly blasted it into the bullpens for his 12th home run of the season.

Earlier in the game, starter Brandon Young did his best Paul Skenes impression, in that he pitched really well but didn’t factor into the decision due to a lack of run support early. The highlight of Young’s evening—and his major league career—came in the 5th inning when he pitched the fourth Immaculate Inning in Orioles history.

The 26-year-old rookie started the inning by getting ahead 0-2 on Jesse Winker before getting Winker to swing through a splitter just below the zone. Young got ahead of Jeff McNeil with a splitter and changeup before McNeil swung through a perfectly placed splitter at the bottom of the zone. The Orioles starter then got ahead of Luis Torrens with a cutter and curveball, before dotting the outside edge of the zone to complete the Immaculate Inning on a backwards K.

The Immaculate Inning showcased what Young had working for him all night: near pinpoint control, especially on his fastball and splitter. The former undrafted free agent start the night with two strikeouts in the 1st. He started the inning by punching out Brandon Nimmo looking on a fastball at the knees and ended the frame by getting Juan Soto to swing through a splitter thrown perfectly down and away.

Young started the 2nd by punching out All-Star Pete Alonso on a curveball that the Mets 1B could only wave at. The rookie set down the first eight batters he faced, not giving up a baserunner until Brett Baty picked up a two-out single in the 3rd. Soto would get the Mets second single in the 4th, but Young erased that baserunner by rolling a 3-6-1 double play

However, the 6’6” Texan finally ran into some trouble in the 6th, as he came down from the high of being the first Oriole since 2018 to throw an Immaculate Inning. With the O’s up 1-0, Ronny Mauricio led off the inning by turning on a hanging splitter and tying the game with a solo shot sent onto the flag court.

Mauricio’s home was the first true mistake we saw from Young on Tuesday, but one quickly turned to more as the Mets took the lead. Baty followed the homer with a double off the base of the right-center wall and Nimmo delivered New York a 2-1 lead with a double of his own to left-center.

Young would get Francisco Lindor to fly out for his first-ever Major League out in the 6th inning, but that’d be his final batter, as Tony Mansolino turned to his bullpen to try and keep the deficit at one. After Gregory Soto came in and stranded Nimmo, it closed Young’s line at 5.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 0 BB and 6 K—by far the best start of his young career.

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The heartbreaking loss kills any talk of momentum carrying over from the weekend series sweep in Atlanta and pushes the Orioles closer to being sellers at the deadline. The loss drops the O’s 7.5 games back of the Mariners for the final Wild Card, and gives the O’s 50 losses before the All-Star break for the first time since 2021. The recently ice-cold Tomoyuki Sugano will take the mound tomorrow, trying to tie the series up against Mets lefty David Peterson.