Wednesday was Nate McLouth’s turn to play hero.
The Baltimore Orioles magical season continued when McLouth, the newly anointed leadoff man, blasted a lined shot off the right field wall in the bottom of the ninth with Manny Machado standing on second base. The walk-off single ended the game at 3-2.
The win, Baltimore’s seventh in their last ten games, moves the Orioles three game ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East. The New York Yankees defeated the Boston Red Sox and remain tied with the Orioles atop the division.
Tampa Bay leadoff hitter B.J. Upton started the game with a first inning homer to left to give the Rays an instant 1-0 lead. Baltimore responded in the bottom half of the inning with RBI singles from catcher Matt Wieters and designated hitter Wilson Betemit. The Rays tied the game in the third on left fielder Ben Francisco’s double to left.
The Orioles are lucky to have kept this game close. Starter Miguel Gonzalez spread six hits and five walks over six innings pitched. In ten at-bats with runners in scoring position, Tampa only scored one man. While Gonzalez finished with a no decision, his 6-4, 3.57 ERA year has been a revelation.
Last year, Gonzalez was an 0-7 pitcher with a 5.40 ERA over 56.2 innings pitched at all three levels of Boston’s farm system. Released in December 2011, the Orioles signed Gonzalez this March to a one-year deal for an undisclosed sum assuredly below his season’s value. In his first year in the big leagues, the 28-year-old has allowed 2 earned runs or fewer in seven of his 12 starts.
The Baltimore bullpen once again pitched lights out, with Darren O’Day, Pedro Strop and Jim Johnson each contributing an inning of scoreless relief. The right-handed trio leads the bullpen with the seventh lowest ERA in baseball.
On top of scoring the winning run, Machado also recorded the defensive play of the game. With two outs in the top of the ninth and Tampa pinch-runner Rich Thompson on second, Evan Longoria topped a slow roller to third. With no play at first, Machado barehanded the ball and feinted a throw to first. Machado followed the fake with a pirouetting throw to shortstop J.J. Hardy who was covering third without Thompson’s notice. As Thompson rounded the bag, Hardy caught the ball and started a rundown that eliminated a potential scoring threat. Both team’s praised the young converted shortstop’s awareness.
At 80-62, the Orioles stand 23rd in on-base percentage, 25th in quality starts and have been outscored by 21 runs. They are also 26-7 in one-run games, a division-best 34-24 against the AL East and 63-0 when leading after seven innings.
Plain and simple, the Orioles know how to win. In an age of sabermetrics and advanced statistics, there is no explaining the Orioles beyond the fact that they score when they need to and never blow a late lead. That equation seems simple enough.
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