The Baltimote Orioles won a game against the American League’s best and Al East leading Tampa Bay Rays (74-48) for a second consecutive day on Saturday. It took 10 innings, but the Orioles managed to prevail in the end, outlasting the Rays 4-3 at Tropicana Field.
The game unfolded as a battle between starters Kyle Bradish and Tampa Bay’s Ian Seymour. Bradish allowed 2 runs on 7 hits with 4 walks and 3 strike outs over 6.0 innings while Seymour allowed 3 runs on 6 hits with a walk and 9 strikeouts over the same 6.0 innings. Seymour did however, surrender a pair of homeruns, first to Pete Alonso (3 for 5), his 27th of the season, in the fifth inning and then to Christian Encarnacion-Strand (1 for 5), his fifth of the season, in the sixth.
Along with the two homeruns, the Orioles scored on a Leody Taveras (2 for 4) RBI single with runners on first and second with two outs in the second inning.
The game was turned over to the bullpens in the seventh inning with the Orioles on top 3-2. Tampa Bay’s pen limited the O’s to just one hit over the seventh, eighth and ninth innings with Baltimore’s doing the same in the seventh and eighth. Andrew Kittredge (2-3) surrendered the game-tying run on a Yandy Diaz RBI-single with two outs in the ninth.
Leading off the 10th, Tyler O’Neill (1 for 5) sent the second pitch he saw from former Oriole Bryan Baker to center field for a RBI-single. Cam Sanders made that run stick as the game-winning run by striking out both former Oriole Cedric Mullins and Richie Palacios in back-to-back at bats to end the game, earning his third save of the season as well as giving Kittredge the win.
With the win, the Orioles are now one-half game out of the third AL Wild Card spot along with the Toronto Blue Jays (61-64) and the Detroit Tigers (60-63). The mediocrity of the 2026 American League is on full display as five teams are within 1.0 game fo the final Wild Card spot and each of those five teams have a below-.500 record>
2026 Record: 60-63
Next Game: Sun. 8/16 @ 12:15 pm @ Tampa Bay Rays (Peacock)
