Orioles stage late rally against Mariners but fall short in extras for 4th straight loss

Nothing livens up a Tuesday night like a ninth-inning rally.

And nothing pours cold water on a good vibe like failing to complete the comeback in extra innings.

The Baltimore Orioles clawed back valiantly against the AL West-leading Seattle Mariners, tying the game in the ninth with two runs. But they ultimately failed to take full advantage of their traffic on the bases, an issue that plagued them throughout the night. It was the club’s fourth straight defeat, as Randy Arozarena clubbed a 10th-inning two-run homer that proved to be the difference.

Leody Taveras brought the Orioles (31-37) within one in the bottom of the 10th, scoring Pete Alonso on a ground-ball single. But the Mariners (36-32) managed three straight outs, including a tag of Blaze Alexander at home plate that held up on review, to hold on for a 6-5 win.

Cruising into the ninth inning, the Orioles offense seemed to be sleepwalking. Even the MASN broadcast, besieged by technical difficulties, was floating in and out midway through the game as the Orioles showed nearly no bite down 4-2.

With one big swing, Coby Mayo woke up the bats with a 422-foot jack to the Bird Bath. Jeremiah Jackson singled. Tyler O’Neill doubled. And a sparse crowd of 14,728 got on their feet to get as loud as they could.

Samuel Basallo hit a chopper toward first base to bring home Jackson on a fielder’s choice to tie it 4-4.

It had started pretty shaky, but these Orioles like to amp up the drama late. Instead of finishing off the comeback, they dropped to 2-2 in extra inning games.

“I like the fight in the ninth, I feel like we’ve had a lot of fight in the ninth inning this year, which is good,” said Mayo. “But also, you want to score some runs earlier than that, try to make it less stressful on our team.”

There were points early on where that looked very possible.

Mariners starter Logan Gilbert allowed five batters to reach base safely in the first two innings, laboring through those frames with 58 pitches. Baltimore had runners in scoring position with just one out in back-to-back innings, but only Taylor Ward managed to cross home plate.

“Made him work. We had him on the ropes,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “We just couldn’t get the big hit.”

Gilbert steadied and wound up pitching six innings of one-run, three-hit ball.

Mayo had the only other run before the ninth, scoring from third on a wild pitch.

If not for one bad pitch, O’s starter Trevor Rogers might have had his own memorable appearance. The left-hander more or less cruised into the fourth, when he had two runners on with two outs. Seattle backstop Mitch Garver walloped an inside fastball 407 feet to the left field bleachers for a three-run homer to give the visitors their first lead.

Rogers gave up six hits and a walk through 5 2/3 innings, trending upward since a May stumble. But the offense just wasn’t there to back him up.

Perhaps the game’s most disappointing performer was Gunnar Henderson, who went 0-for-5 at the plate with a strikeout. In the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded and one out, he hit a bouncer to third baseman Patrick Wisdom, who threw home to get O’Neill, the potential winning run, on a force. Then, with the count full in the next at-bat, Henderson got a late jump on a bouncing ball off the bat of Alonso and was forced out at second on a bang-bang-play.

A former All-Star, Henderson has 13 home runs but has otherwise been spotty at the plate, a bellwether of an offense that ebbs and flows.

“He’s had good at-bats and just hasn’t gotten the results that he wanted,” Albernaz said. “He’s a main piece in what we do. And I know everyone’s enamored with results, and rightfully so, and so is Gunnar, but he will get those results.”

MASN, Baltimore’s team-operated regional sports network, experienced technical difficulties, leading to a surprising and vexing interruption of Orioles-Mariners — the longest of which spanned the 5th and 6th innings. For a half-hour, MASN broadcast an episode a pre-recorded interview show before finally wrangling the live feed back on the air.

Broadcaster Kevin Brown had a dry welcome for the viewers as they tuned back into Camden Yards: “The good news is you haven’t missed much.”

NOTE: Adley Rutschman was a notable absence from the lineup for a second straight game and did not suit up Tuesday. Albernaz said afterward that the catcher is dealing with left hamstring soreness and will be reevaluated day by day.