On a night when Pete Alonso hit his 36th homerun of the season and the 300th of his illustrious MLB career, it was an eleventh inning inside-the-park homerun by Coby Mayo that stole the show. Alonso’s ninth-inning homerun tied the game at 3 apiece but it was Mayo’s homerun that ultimately won the game for the Baltimore Orioles. With the 7-5 win in 11 innings over the New York Mets (69-82), the Orioles were able to keep pace with the Cleveland Guardians (77-75) and remain 3.0 games behind in the AL Wild Card race.
Alonso, who went 1 for 5, became the 10th fastest MLB player to reach the 300 HR plateau. The Citi Field faithful coerced him into making a well-deserved curtain call.
Mayo’s homerun came with Leody Taveras and Dylan Beavers on base. The ball took Nrw York’s A.J. Ewing all the way to the centerfield wall and bounced off of his glove before he crashed into the wall. As the ball rolled toward the infield, Juan Soto and Carson Benge were slow to back up the play which allowed Mayo (2 for 5) to round the bases. The homerun came with two outs and an 0-2 count. The three runs were needed for sure because few Orioles’ wins seem easy.
Andrew Kittredge came on to pitch the eleventh and allowed a two-out RBI-single to Bo Bichette. Benge, who had previously hit a solo homerun leading off the third inning, represented the tying run but hit a fly out to center field to end the game and give Kittredge his 10th save of the season.
Bichette had a major hand in getting starter Shane Baz out of the game. In the fifth inning he hit a 105.1 mph line drive the struck Baz on the point of his right elbow. Baz left the game after throwing a warmup pitch that went high to the backstop. He finished with a line of 3 runs allowed on 7 hits with 2 walks, 2 strikeouts and a homerun allowed over 4.0 innings.
Seven relievers covered the final 7.0 innings of the game and despite allowing two unearned runs on five hits, kept the Birds in the game. Alex Hoppe (1-1) allowed the ghost runner, Benge, to score on a Marcus Semien RBI-double in the tenth inning but emerged as the pitcheer of record thanks to Mayo.
Joining Alonso and Mayo in the homerun parade were Christian Encarnacion-Strand (2 for 5, 2 R, RBI) and Jeremiah Jackson (1 for 4, R, RBI) who each hit second inning solo homeruns.
The Orioles will need to go 8-2 over the final 10 games of the season to finish with a >.500 record.
2026 Record: 74-78
Next Game: Wed. 9/16 @ 7:10 pm @ New York Mets (ESPN)
