Orioles overcome 7-run deficit to win crazy game against Tigers in extra innings

DETROIT — This would be impressive if it wasn’t so maddening. The way the Orioles can excel and flounder within the span of a series — within a span of minutes of the same game, even — is befuddling. It is exaltation one minute, cruel and unusual punishment for a fanbase the next.

In the end, perhaps relief was the predominant feeling for these Orioles.

They won an absolutely bonkers game at Comerica Park that lasted into the 12th inning and finished 10-9 against the Tigers.

Entering the seventh inning, Baltimore found itself trailing by seven runs. The Orioles caught up with a five-run seventh and a two-run eighth to force extra innings. And, once there, more back-and-forth play occurred.

In the end, however, right-hander Andrew Kittredge forced a groundout from Eduardo Valencia to end the game and Colton Cowser’s RBI single in the top half of the 12th marked the winning run.

This win becomes the Orioles’ largest comeback since 2009, when they overcame a nine-run deficit to beat the Boston Red Sox on June 30. It’s also the first time the Orioles have gone down 7-0, then won, since July 2, 1995.

Cowser’s at-bat in the top of the 12th inning was one of his best. He fell behind 0-2, then worked the count full with the go-ahead run on third base. Against left-hander Drew Sommers, Cowser prodded a single into center.

Baltimore might have won it an inning earlier after Yohel Pozo plated the go-ahead run in the 11th with a sacrifice fly and Jackson Holliday — who finished 8-for-11 this series — put the Orioles ahead by two.

But the Orioles turned to right-hander Rico Garcia for the bottom half of that frame. Spencer Torkelson crushed his first pitch — a hanging slider — for a game-tying two-run homer.

Cowser’s single and the combination of left-hander Grant Wolfram and Kittredge won a wild one, however, that started out much more poorly.

The traffic against left-hander Tarik Skubal was minimal until the seventh, when the Orioles put runners on the corners with two outs. That’s when Leody Taveras dsingle to chase Skubal from what could be his final start with the Tigers.

Skubal, who recorded his 1,000th career strikeout when he punched out Taylor Ward to begin the game, left the mound to a standing ovation. The Tigers’ pitching staff unraveled from there.

Right-hander Kyle Finnegan allowed a two-run single from Holliday, who entered as a pinch hitter with the bases loaded, and Ward delivered a two-run single to trim Detroit’s lead to two runs.

Then in the eighth, against right-hander Drew Anderson, Coby Mayo delivered the largest blow: a two-run triple to the deepest part of center field. That blast tied a game in which Baltimore had looked down and out.

The way the Orioles played defense meant they had little business being close. They recorded three errors behind left-hander Trevor Rogers, and it could’ve been more given the bobbles and misplays not ruled errors.

At one point, Pete Alonso held his head in his hands after throwing the ball away in a rundown opportunity. Baltimore’s fans have mirrored that stance more times than not this season. This has been a debacle in the field far too frequently — which doesn’t reinforce the team’s hopes to avoid selling ahead of the Aug. 3 trade deadline.

It’s not outlandish to still see any of the three trade deadline outcomes: buying, selling or doing both. The Orioles have three games remaining before then. The dismal American League chase for the third wild-card spot leaves room open for losing clubs to consider buying, even when performances such as Wednesday’s exhibit the wide gap between the Orioles and postseason-caliber play.

The Orioles lead the majors with 69 unearned runs allowed. That is more than Baltimore has conceded in a season since 2019, when the club lost 108 games.

The first error Wednesday came in the second, when Alonso misfired a throw to Gunnar Henderson when he caught Javier Báez in a rundown between first and second. Báez had just hit an RBI single against Rogers, and when Alonso missed his throw, a second run scored. A sacrifice fly later in the frame brought home a third run.

Back-to-back errors in the sixth — one from Christian Encarnacion-Strand and the next from Henderson — helped the Tigers build a 7-0 lead.

Rogers wasn’t his crispest. He allowed eight hits. But his day was complicated by the lack of execution behind him.

All that, in the end, didn’t cost the Orioles the game.