Orioles edge Rays in 11th after losing lead in 9th
Joey Rickard delivered a tiebreaking, two-out double in the top of the 11th inning, giving the visiting Baltimore Orioles a 6-5 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday night.
Chris Davis, who came on as a late-inning defensive replacement, started the game-winning rally with a two-out single off Diego Castillo (0-1). Rio Ruiz followed with a single to left that sent Davis to third.
Rickard then drove in Davis with a double to left. Ruiz tried to score on the play but was thrown out at the plate. The double capped a 4-for-5 night for Rickard, who drove in two runs.
The Rays' Avisail Garcia had tied the score in the bottom of the ninth when he hit a solo homer off Mychal Givens.
John Means (2-2) got the win for Baltimore with two innings of scoreless relief. The left-hander struck out four.
Andrew Cashner started for the Orioles and gave up two runs on five hits in five innings while striking out six.
Tampa Bay again skipped using a starter and went with Hunter Wood as an opener. Wood threw two scoreless innings.
The Rays took a quick lead in the bottom of the first inning. Austin Meadows doubled off Cashner, and Tommy Pham followed with an RBI single to center.
Baltimore took the lead with two in the top of the third. Renato Nunez and Rickard contributed run-scoring singles that gave the Orioles a 2-1 edge.
Pham came through again and tied it in the third with a solo homer, his third of the season. Baltimore's Pedro Severino snapped the tie with a solo homer to left in the fourth, his first of the year.
Richie Martin added to the Baltimore lead in the seventh when his RBI single made it 4-2. Martin's single scored Rickard, who had tripled to start the inning. The RBI was the first of the shortstop's career.
The Orioles added another run in the top of the eighth when Dwight Smith Jr. sent a sacrifice fly to center. But Tampa Bay rallied in the bottom of the inning when Mike Zunino lined a two-run double to the right field corner off Evan Phillips.
--Field Level Media
