CLEVELAND—The Orioles entered Saturday night’s game with the Cleveland Guardians knowing that had to win to avoid dropping out of first place for the first time since June 26th.
Since then, the Orioles have gone 16-16, but haven’t dropped behind the New York Yankees in the American League East. The Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 8-3, to temporarily move ahead of the Orioles.
The Orioles had a one-run lead through seven innings, and their four-run rally in the eighth gave them a comfortable lead on their way to a 7-4 win over Cleveland before 37,251 at Progressive Field.
That keeps the Orioles and Yankees in a first-place tie in the AL East.
Oriole starter Zach Eflin (7-7) allowed two runs on five hits, striking out three and walking one in his second start, both wins, with the Orioles (66-46). In his first start, Eflin allowed three runs on 10 hits in six innings on Monday.
Eflin allowed a two-run home run to Angel Martínez in the second. The Orioles tied it against Joey Cantillo (0-1) in the fourth.
In his first start with the team, Eloy Jiménez’s single scored Gunnar Henderson in the fourth and Colton Cowser’s single brought home Anthony Santander.
Cowser’s hard drive, which was stopped by Josh Naylor at first, could have scored Jiménez had it gone past him. Cowser has a 16-game hitting streak, one away from Trey Mancini’s rookie record of 17 set in September 2017.
The Orioles took a 3-2 lead when Jackson Holliday led off the fifth with a double. Austin Slater, who was batting first in his first start with the team, bunted for a hit, and with one out, Gunnar Henderson singled to left.
Cantillo allowed three runs on six hits in four-plus innings.
Gunnar Henderson doubled against Xzavion Curry, and after Santander singled, Adley Rutschman, who pinch-hit for Jiménez, hit a liner to right that Jhonkensy Noel misjudged, and then fell down, resulting in a two-run triple. Ryan O’Hearn, hitting for Coby Mayo, doubled to score Rutschman, and with two outs, Holliday singled, for his second consecutive two-hit game, to score O’Hearn and give the Orioles a 7-2 lead.
Cionel Pérez walked Steven Kwan to start the bottom of the eighth, and José Ramírez hit his fourth home run in six games against the Orioles this season off Seranthony Dominguez to cut the Orioles’ lead to 7-4.
Yennier Cano pitched a spotless ninth for his fifth save.
The Orioles ended the Guardians’ (67-43) five-game winning streak.