Orioles’ four-run – Down 4 runs in the bottom of the ninth at Camden Yards, the Orioles surged with five straight runs against the Blue Jays—ending the comeback when Pete Alonso delivered a walk-off RBI single for a 6-5 victory.
BALTIMORE — Camden Yards felt like it was running out of time. With the Orioles staring at a four-run deficit against the Blue Jays as Saturday’s bottom of the ninth began, their win probability was a sliver: 1.9% as they entered the frame, according to Baseball Savant.
It got worse fast. Samuel Basallo opened the ninth by striking out, pushing Baltimore’s win probability down to 0.7%. Even then, the Orioles kept insisting they could still win. It wasn’t talk meant for the highlight reel. It was the kind of belief that shows up in the way they take at-bats—one at-bat at a time—until the math starts to bend.
A five-run rally answered the doubt.
The comeback finally closed the moment Pete Alonso stepped in and delivered the walk-off. The 31-year-old hit a walk-off RBI single to lift Baltimore to an unbelievable 6-5 victory. It was the first time the Orioles won a game in which they trailed by at least four in the ninth since June 7. 2017. when they beat Pittsburgh 9-6 in an 11-inning game.
Alonso made the Orioles’ mindset sound simple, even if the path wasn’t.
“There’s never a doubt. I mean, we’ve done it a few times this year,” Alonso said. “Because we’ve done it, it’s like, ‘Hey, we’re never out of it.’ The talent and just the personnel we have, we all believe in each other. We know that’s definitely capable and within reach.”
He could have been talking about this week, too. Saturday marked Baltimore’s third walk-off win in seven days. Colton Cowser hit a game-ending three-run homer on Sunday in a 5-3 victory over Detroit in the opener of a doubleheader. On Monday, Cowser followed with a walk-off two-run homer in a 9-7, 13-inning win vs. Tampa Bay.
But this time, the Orioles didn’t have the luxury of saying “it worked before.” They had to make it work from a 4-run hole, with time practically gone.
The rally began the moment Jeff Hoffman struck Coby Mayo with a 1-1 sinker with one out. Mayo took the pitch to the left elbow without flinching.
“The huge momentum was Coby wearing one for the boys right there,” Alonso said. “He took it like a man, and that kind of fired us up in the dugout.”
From there, the at-bats didn’t loosen. Leody Taveras drove an RBI triple to right field. Jackson Holliday followed with an RBI single to right. Cowser added a double to right, and Taylor Ward drew a walk to load the bases with Baltimore still trailing 5-3.
Gunnar Henderson then drew a bases-loaded walk to end Hoffman’s day, and the Blue Jays turned to right-hander Connor Seabold.
Seabold didn’t get the clean reset the Blue Jays were hoping for. He immediately walked Adley Rutschman, and suddenly the game was tied at 5.
If the Orioles needed any reminder of how far this comeback had traveled, the numbers were there. The O’s 11 walks marked their most in a game since July 27, 2005.
Manager Craig Albernaz described the dugout-to-batting-box rhythm that carried them through the noise.
“Everyone was in the dugout saying. ‘Get the tying run up. one at-bat at a time.’ We don’t waver. ” Albernaz said. “The guys in the clubhouse, they’re outstanding, they don’t waver. But also. to say that in the dugout and then go out there and be really disciplined in the box — especially when the crowd’s going nuts and everyone wants to be the hero — being able to be selfless. take your walk and pass it to the next guy. that was fun to watch.”.
Then came Alonso’s moment.
This wasn’t a situation where everything came easy. Alonso had struggled in bases-loaded spots this year. falling to 0-for-8 after grounding into a 5-4-3 double play to end the third. Against Seabold, though, the timing finally met the belief. With Toronto playing its infield in. Alonso connected on a 2-1 fastball from Seabold and punched it into right-center at an exit velocity of 104.4 mph for his first walk-off knock as an Oriole.
Holliday felt the confidence in the dugout the moment Alonso came up.
“To be able to get Pete up there, you know he’s going to put the ball in play and hit the ball hard,” Holliday said. “I felt pretty confident with him up there that we were going to win.”
As the ninth unfolded, the win probability shifted in an almost relentless march:
Basallo’s strikeout: 0.7%
Mayo’s HBP: 1.8%
Taveras’ RBI triple: 5.5%
Holliday’s RBI single: 11.2%
Cowser’s double: 29.8%
Ward’s walk: 34%
Henderson’s RBI walk: 54.5%
Rutschman’s RBI walk: 83.7%
Alonso’s walk-off RBI single: 100%
It didn’t erase everything that came before. The Orioles entered Saturday after dropping the first two games of the series against the Blue Jays, following a sweep of a three-game home set vs. the American League-best Rays.
But Saturday’s win changed the mood, and it changed the math for the week ahead. Baltimore. now 27-32. has a chance to split the four-game series versus Toronto and finish its season-long 10-game homestand with a 7-3 mark after what was otherwise a rocky stretch—an unlikely positive swing that could keep the Orioles from fading before the calendar turns fully into summer.
Alonso ended it the way the night began: with one more game to finish.
“Hopefully, we win tomorrow. When we win tomorrow, I think that’d be 7-3,” Alonso said with a smile. “If you play 10 games, you go 7-3, you’ll take that every time. If we can get the job done tomorrow, that’d be a great momentum starter for us as the year progresses.”
Orioles Blue Jays Pete Alonso walk-off Camden Yards comeback ninth inning Basallo Mayo Taveras Holliday Cowser Ward Henderson Rutschman Seabold
how do they even come back from 1.9% win probability lol
I didn’t even finish reading but that Alonso walk-off is gonna be everywhere. Also Baltimore fans really are built different I guess. Four runs down in the 9th sounds fake.
So they were down 4 and then win 6-5… but wait who scored the other runs, like was it all errors or what? Baseball Savant says 0.7% but that sounds like some made up stat to me. I swear teams always pull it together right after the broadcast cuts away.
Orioles are getting scary if they’re doing walk-offs like that. Three walk-offs in seven days?? That’s insane. I saw a highlight and thought Alonso was on a different team though, so I got confused, but either way wow. Also Camden Yards is like the only stadium where stuff like this magically happens, no idea why.