Keith Allison- Flickr
The Baltimore Orioles began their important six game home stand with a 12th inning Walk-Off win Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Angels. Manny Machado delivered the Solo-Shot to give the O’s the win off of Angels’ reliever Cory Rasmus. Machado finished the game 2-6 with a RBI Double and the Homer.
In a game that saw 12 combined runs scored in the first seven innings, both starters had short, ineffective nights. Orioles’ starter Chris Tillman, who had been dominant in his last few starts, failed to reach the sixth inning and allowed five runs, two of those unearned due to a throwing error by the right-hander.
Angels’ starter Jared Weaver would have been happy with Tillman’s numbers, but instead he was quite worse, going five innings, allowing six Runs on seven Hits with four Walks. The 31-year-old was never able to settle in to a groove and the Orioles’ hitters took advantage of him.
It didn’t take long for the scoring to happen as LA’s Josh Hamilton gave the Angels the lead in the first with an RBI ground-out. The Orioles would answer in the bottom half as Adam Jones was all over a Weaver fastball and sent it flying into the left field seats. After a Nelson Cruz walk and a Delmon Young single, J.J. Hardy would put the Orioles on top 2-1 with a single to left. The Halos would come back in the second and, thanks to a Chris Tillman error, would score two unanswered runs to take the 3-2 lead.
The seesaw battle continued in the bottom of the second, as Manny Machado hit his 11th Double of the year to score Nick Hundley. After a quiet third inning by both teams, the scoring picked back up in the fourth as Hank Conger brought in Efren Navarro on a sacrifice fly. However, again the O’s answered. This time it was Nick Markakis who hit a three-run line drive Home Run off the right field Foul Pole to give the Orioles a 6-4 lead in the bottom of the fourth. Weaver escaped the 5th without any damage and that would be his last inning.
Tillman’s fifth and final frame was spoiled by Josh Hamilton’s sixth Home Run of the season to bring the Angels within one. It wasn’t until the seventh inning, when things got interesting again. With men on first and third and two outs for the Angels, the Orioles decided to go with lefty Brian Matusz to face Hamilton, who was 0-11 against him. Matusz got Hamilton to hit a ground ball to shortstop J.J. Hardy, but Hardy was left hanging at second by Ryan Flaherty and was forced to make a late throw to first. Hamilton was called safe and the runner scored to tie the game at six.
The bullpens for both teams would take over from that point on and it wasn’t until the 12th inning when Machado would wait and crush the 1-2 breaking ball into the left field bleachers.
It was a great performance by the O’s pen, as they went a combined seven innings, allowing only one run while striking out five. The Angels had a similar mark, going six innings and striking out five. Baltimore reliever Ryan Webb picked up his third win of the season, pitching a scoreless inning with two hits and a strikeout. Rasmus was pinned with his first loss of the season, allowing the solo shot by Manny.
Baltimore’s designated hitter Delmon Young delivered three of the O’s ten hits and Nick Markakis produced his 39th multi-hit game of the season. It was the Orioles’ 12th extra-innings win of the season and they are now 12-3 in those games.
A.J. Risser is a writer for Couch Rider Report. You can follow him on Facebook and Twitter.