Top of the 9th, two outs. Orioles are down by one and it's all down to Ryan Flaherty. Flaherty, who was 0-for-14 on the season so far. Flaherty, who had already struck out three times in tonight's game. Might as well pack it in and try again tomorrow, don't you think?
WRONG.
Flaherty squirted a ground ball single between the third baseman and shortstop for his first hit of the season, igniting a rally that ended with Manny Machado getting his first home run of the year to put the Orioles ahead 8-5. The Orioles survived another rough outing by Jake Arrieta and a two homer performance from Tommy Goes Boom Hunter with an awesome five-run ninth inning against Red Sox closer Joel Hanrahan.
The win takes the Orioles back to .500 and stops their losing streak at three.
Jake Arrieta; 5 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 4 BB, 2 K
Tommy Hunter: 1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 HR
Troy Patton + Darren O'Day + Jim Johnson = AWESOME.
Homers by Nick Markakis, Chris Davis, and Manny Machado. Perhaps even more impressive, Nate McLouth took three walks.
Stay tuned for full recap including the Most Birdland Player poll (spoiler: Machado is gonna win).