Orioles 7, Tigers 5
BALTIMORE -- Chris Dickerson hit a three-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Baltimore Orioles a wild 7-5 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Friday night before a sellout crowd of 46,249 at Camden Yards.
Detroit took a 5-3 lead into ninth thanks to homers from Miguel Cabrera and Avisail Garcia plus a solid eight-inning effort from starter Max Scherzer, who retired the final 16 Orioles batters he faced.
But the Orioles rallied when closer Jose Valverde came on in the ninth.
Nick Markakis led off with a homer to make it 5-4. Adam Jones reached on an infield single to deep short. Chris Davis then worked the count full before lining a single to right-center field. Garcia raced over from right to cut it off and force Jones to stop at third -- or he would have easily scored.
Valverde got Wieters and J.J. Hardy on popups before Dickerson blasted a 2-1 fastball from Valverde (0-1) into the right-center field seats. That capped a four-run bottom of the ninth and gave the Orioles (31-24) their third straight win.
Darren O'Day (3-0) picked up the win for the Orioles.
Detroit (29-24) now has dropped four in a row.
The Tigers started quickly against Miguel Gonzalez. Andy Dirks singled with one out in the top of the first and scored when Cabrera belted a two-run homer to deep left for a 2-0 lead.
Baltimore cut the lead in half in the second. Jones led off with a single and went to third when Davis singled. Wieters followed with a sacrifice fly to drive in Jones.
The Orioles took the lead in the third when Jones hit a two-run homer to deep center. Markakis had just drawn a two-out walk before Jones' blast, which put Baltimore up 3-2.
The Tigers tied it in the fourth on a Garcial RBI single. His two-out grounder up the middle scored Jhonny Peralta, who had reached on a forceout.
Detroit opened a 4-3 lead in the fifth when Dirks scored on a Victor Martinez forceout. The Tigers loaded the bases with one out and the Orioles tried to turn a double play when Martinez bounced to second, but he just beat shortstop J.J. Hardy's throw to first.
NOTES: Davis entered the game with 19 homers through May 30, the second-highest total by an Orioles player in history at this point in the season. According to STATS, Brady Anderson holds the record with 20 in 1996, the year he hit 50 overall. ...Jones' home run was his 11th this season. The Orioles now have three players -- Davis and Hardy are the others -- who have at least 10 homers, one of just four teams in the majors so far. ... Scherzer dodged a bullet in the second inning when a Jones line drive hit him in the lower back before deflecting into center field for a single. The right-hander seemed fine afterward. ... Cabrera's first-inning homer was his 12th of the month, the most for a Tiger since Willie Horton in 1968.
