WEST SACRAMENTO -- Scoring in the top of the 10th has begun to feel like a must for any road team when extra innings come into play.
“You kind of have to, or you feel like you’re out of it,” Orioles infielder Coby Mayo said. “Obviously, you’re not, but that’s how it can feel.”
With two outs in the 10th of Friday’s series opener against the Athletics at Sutter Health Park, Mayo and a Baltimore club that hadn’t scored since the second inning faced considerable pressure. In a 2-2 game, catcher Carlos Narváez stood at second base as the automatic runner, and pinch-runner Gunnar Henderson was aboard at first.
Mayo knew the drill.
“Put the ball in play, good things happen,” he said.
The Orioles’ resident lefty-masher took an 0-1 fastball from A’s southpaw Brady Basso the other way to right field, scoring Narváez with the go-ahead run en route to a 4-3 win over the A’s.
His go-ahead hit was the biggest of several key contributions from some of the Orioles’ under-the-radar players in a win that put Baltimore (66-69) just two games out of the third and final American League Wild Card spot.
After Christian Encarnacion-Strand followed Mayo’s single with an opposite-field RBI hit of his own, reliever Alex Hoppe -- acquired for outfielder Taylor Ward ahead of the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline -- handled the bottom of the 10th.
The righty struck out A’s rookie Henry Bolte for a key first out and worked around a two-out RBI single to lock down the game and earn his first Major League save, a milestone that came with a celebratory beer shower in the clubhouse.
“I think I had to use body wash three or four times and three or four times with shampoo just to get the smell out, but all worth it in the end,” Hoppe said.
Hoppe was one of four Orioles relievers to follow righty starter Brandon Young, who seemed so sharp early on that Baltimore’s bullpen almost wasn’t needed at all.
After Young powered through five scoreless innings on just 57 pitches, Orioles manager Craig Albernaz consulted with pitching coach Drew French to make sure that the left-field ribbon board displaying Young’s pitch count was actually correct. Mayo saw the same numbers and thought a heroic nine-inning performance might be in store.
“He was in the sixth and I looked up and he was at, like, 61 pitches,” Mayo said. “I was like, ‘He could go [complete game] here.’”
Instead, Young’s night ended after the seventh inning, in which a two-out homer from A’s catcher Jonah Heim cut a 2-0 Baltimore lead in half. The A’s tied things up in the eighth on a one-out single to left by Lawrence Butler, but an excellent throw to the plate from Dylan Beavers cut down the would-be go-ahead run.
It was a crucial play from Beavers, who saw most of his outfield action in right field before Ward was traded to Seattle. Now the club’s regular left fielder, Beavers -- who opened the scoring with a two-out single in the second -- has been coming up huge.
“He’s done a great job working and getting comfortable out there,” Albernaz said. “It’s a credit to Beavers, just all the work he’s been putting in. That was a huge throw.”
After Beavers’ outfield assist kept the game tied, the Orioles threatened in the ninth when Colton Cowser drew a leadoff walk, but Cowser was caught stealing, deflating a promising inning. Veteran Andrew Kittredge worked around a one-out single in the ninth to send the game to extras, where Blaze Alexander -- activated Friday from the injured list -- nearly gave the O’s the lead with a liner that was snagged at first base.
An intentional walk to Pete Alonso (who was pinch-run for by Henderson) and a strikeout of Jackson Holliday left it all up to Mayo, who kept up his hot hitting against left-handers. His go-ahead single upped his OPS against lefties to 1.119, the best in the Majors among the 211 hitters with at least 100 plate appearances against southpaws.
“Fortunately, I was able to see a ball up and just hit it hard, and it just got through a hole,” Mayo said.
It was just what the Orioles needed en route to their fifth win in their past seven games. With two more games against the A’s and three against the Rockies upcoming, they have every chance to gain some more ground in a tight AL playoff race.