The Baltimore Orioles finished their final home stand of the season by taking three straight in interleague play from the Arizona Diamondbacks much to the delight of the Camden Yards crowd and by doing so have given themselves a chance to make the playoffs as a Wild Card team.
The Birds finished their last home stand 5-6 and the real heartbreaker was losing four straight to their A. L. East rival the Boston Red Sox. That stretch knocked them out of the race for the A. L. East Crown.
They did show some fight by rebounding and taking three from the D-Backs.
They are still in contention for a WC playoff berth with six games remaining in the regular season. With a record of (85-71) they trail Toronto (86-69) by a game and a half and they lead the Tigers (83-72) by the same margin.
They won the first game of the series 3-2 on a 12th-inning walk off home run from the ML home run leader Mark Trumbo who now has a career-high 44 homers for the season. The much-needed victory snapped a four game losing streak.
Pedro Alverez hit his 22nd homer and Matt Wieters went 3 for 5 and launched his 15th home run in the ninth inning to tie the game and set up Trumbo’s heroics.
Meanwhile, starter Yovani Gallardo allowed six hits struck out five walked two and surrendered two runs in six innings of work. The bullpen struck out eight while throwing six shutout innings.
The middle game of the series featured a real pitching gem from O’s starter Wade Miley. He struck out a career-high 11 batters and nearly pitched the Oriole’s second complete game of the season in a 6-1 victory. He allowed seven hits and one run in 8.2 innings of work. Miley’s effort was a real shot in the arm for the team as he has struggled at times after being a late season addition. He improved to (9-13) and now has a 5.40 ERA.
Late season call up Trey Mancini, who hit a homer in his first two Big League games, hit his third as part of a three-run fourth for the Birds. Slugger Chris Davis went 2 for 5 with two RBIs. Trumbo hit his 45th homer of the season.
The final home game of the season was a 2-1 victory powered by a two-run homer by Hyun Soo Kim his fifth of the season.
Starter Dylan Bundy struck out five allowed three hits and one run in five innings of work. He improved to (10-6) with a 4.02 ERA.
the Orioles now fly north of the border to play three very important games with the Blue Jays before finishing the regular season with three games against the Yankees.
