Orioles blow chance to walk off in ninth, lose 6-4 in extras to Tigers

This is a game the Orioles should have won. But they didn’t.

Despite a golden chance to walk off as a winner in the ninth inning, the Orioles instead fell in gut-wrenching fashion to the Tigers 6-4 on Saturday night at Camden Yards.

After a quiet first inning, the Tigers got on the scoreboard in the top of the second with a two-out rally. Riley Greene had led off the frame with a walk, but then hung around while the next two hitters were retired. Trey Sweeney kept things alive with a double to put two runners in scoring position, and Dillon Dingler brought them both home on a triple into the right-center gap.

It felt like the type of Cade Povich start that could get out of hand from there. We have seen the rookie get taken down by particularly difficult innings. But that didn’t happen here. Importantly, he was aided by center field Cedric Mullins making a wonderful diving catch to end the second inning. From there, the lefty kinda cruised.

From the third through fifth innings, Povich allowed just two baserunners, both via walks. He also racked up four strikeouts, including three in the fifth inning alone.

It was an encouraging outing for Povich. He grew into the game, which has not always been the case for the 24-year-old. He now has a 3.18 ERA in the month of September, a huge improvement from his midseason work.

The Orioles struck back in the bottom of the second inning, but it was a rather disappointing outcome. They loaded the bases with one out for the bottom of the order. A fully functioning Orioles offense would have probably turned that into a huge inning. Instead, Emmanuel Rivera drove in their first run of the day with a sacrifice fly, and that’s all they would get. Jackson Holliday few out to end the inning.

Another promising inning was squandered in the bottom of the fourth. With one out and runners on first and second, Heston Kjerstad served a base hit into left field. Greene charged the rolling ball, collected, and fired a strike home to nab Rutschman trying to score from second. Rivera came to the plate with two outs, but he couldn’t get the job done either. Despite having three hits in the inning, the O’s were unable to score.

Rivera did cash in in the sixth inning, though. With two down and a pair of runners on base, Rivera singled up the middle. Once again it was Rutschman rounding third, and this time he scored with no issue to tie things at two runs apiece.

In the seventh it seemed like the Orioles would cough the lead right back up. Keegan Akin came on and got into trouble, allowing back-to-back singles. But he settled in from there, getting a fielder’s choice for the first out, securing a key strikeout of Andy Ibáñez for out number two, and then inducing a fly out to escape the jam unscathed.

Things would not go as well for Cionel Pérez in the eighth. He gave up three straight singles, including a run-scoring base hit from Jake Rogers. The Rogers hit should have been fielded and turned into a double play by Holliday at second base. But it skipped by him to score a crucial run for the Tigers.

Detroit would also add an insurance run in the form of a Colt Keith sacrifice fly to bring in Greene and make it 4-2.

That put all the pressure on the Orioles offense to come through in the bottom of the ninth. They would, but they could have done a lot more, and they paid a price to failing to do so.

Kjerstad led off with a single. Rivera followed with one of his own. And then Holliday, who had been having a tough day, put forth a very mature at-bat to work a walk. That created a dream scenario for the Orioles. Gunnar Henderson walked to the plate with no outs and the bases juiced. The MVO got the job done, doubling into the right-center gap to score Kjerstad and Rivera while setting the stage for a walk-off.

Only the walk-off never came. Cedric Mullins grounded out. Then Anthony Santander popped out on a flare over third base that the Tigers shortstop, Sweeney, somehow got under while also colliding with the left fielder. The runner at third, Holliday, had taken a few steps off the bag in hopes of scoring in the event of a single dropping in. Instead, he stayed put.

MASN announcer Jim Palmer indicated that if Holliday had tagged up he would have scored, but that doesn’t feel like a guarantee. Sweeney got the ball in quickly, and the play was quite close to third base. Not to mention, Holliday’s decision to take a few steps off the bag is the right baseball play. It just didn’t work out. For all the things that didn’t go well for Holliday in this game, this one does not feel like a mistake. Colton Cowser was up next and could have driven in the winning run. He flew out to end the inning.

Onto extras we went, and Yennier Cano came on for the Orioles. It wasn’t his finest night. Greene smacked the first pitch from Cano into right field for an RBI single. Jace Jung laced the second pitch of the inning for a double into right-center field. The following batter, McKinstry, drove in the second run of the inning on a sac fly to right field. Cano then wrapped things up with a pair of strikeouts.

The Orioles would threaten in the bottom of the 10th, but they were unable to push any runs across the board. Livan Soto worked a walk to put runners on the corners with one out and Kjerstad up next. The rookie slugger put up a fight, but was no match for Beau Brieske’s changeup. He struck out, and newbie Daniel Johnson grounded out to end the game.

Look, there are positives to take from every game. Povich has improved tremendously throughout the season, and was good here. Rivera had two hits and two RBI. He seems like a guy that will stick around for the postseason. Henderson came through when it mattered. That’s cool!

But this game could have been so much more. This had a chance to be a signature win for the Orioles. Another walk-off win. Another game where the offense scores five runs. And it could have been the game that sent them into the postseason. It would have felt pretty darn good!

They had it right there for the taking in the ninth inning. Runners in scoring position with no one out and the 2-3-4 hitters coming up. None of them could get it done. That is an indictment in where the Orioles offense lives at the moment.

The ninth inning wasn’t the only problem though. The Orioles went 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left 11 runners on base for the entire game. They had 10 hits, worked four walks, and had a hit by pitch. That math should lead to more than four runs. The fact that it didn’t is a problem.

Ramón Urías, Jordan Westburg, and Ryan Mountcastle will probably be back this week. That will help. But is it enough to turn this lineup around? Anything is better than the status quo, and Westburg in particular is no mope. It just feels hopeless at the moment.

In the interest of staying positive, the Orioles can still clinch the playoffs this weekend, and they can even win a series. That would help wash out the bad taste of today’s loss, at least a little bit.

Albert Suárez will start on the bump for the O’s on Sunday. The Tigers are still thinking about who will start for them. First pitch is 1:35 on MASN.