O's 5, Red Sox 4: The 13th Inning's The Charm

The O's like to score early, and they like to score in extras. This game was no exception. The O's drew first blood when they got three runs in the bottom of the third. Danny Valencia got things going when he belted a 1-0 pitch into the stands. Ryan Flaherty came up and knocked a double. After Nate McLouth sacrificed Flaherty to third, the Red Sox drew their infield in. This turned out to be a mistake when Manny Machado splintered an RBI single up the middle, scoring Flaherty. 2-0 O's. Nick Markakis followed with another single, and Adam Jones reached on a fielder's choice to put runners at the corners. Chris Davis then knocked in Machado to put the O's up 3-0.

Meanwhile, Gausman was cruising, having given up only one hit (a first-inning single to Shane Victorino) through three. After the Orioles took the lead though, he faltered in the top of the fourth, giving up back-to-back jacks to David Ortiz and Mike Carp (who came in to replace Mike Napoli). 3-2 O's. Besides those two pitches though, he held the Red Sox off the board.

In the bottom of the 5th, the O's made Red Sox starter Felix Doubront work hard but could only muster one run out of it. Machado flew out to start the inning, but Nick Markakis reached on an error by Will Middlebrooks. Doubront then hit Adam Jones with a pitch to put runners on first and second with one out. After Davis K'd for the second out, Matt Wieters battled Doubront to a full count and then singled to bring in Markakis for the fourth run of the game. J.J. Hardy stepped in and worked a walk, so after Doubront's 35th pitch of the inning, the O's had the bases loaded with two outs. Franklin Morales relieved, however, and got Danny Valencia to pop out to short to end the threat.

Gausman was going strong into the top of the 6th. He'd K'd 5, walked none, and given up only 5 hits including the two solo home runs. Not exactly Superman, but he got the first out of the 6th before giving up a single to Dustin Pedroia. With the lefty home run duo of Ortiz and Carp up, Brian Matusz came in to relieve. He popped up Ortiz and stuck out Carp to get out of the inning with the lead intact.

But it wasn't to be for long. The Red Sox opened the 7th with three straight singles off of Matusz. Stephen Drew worked the count full before slamming a pitch to deep center; Jones caught it at the wall, but it scored Daniel Nava to make it 4-3 O's. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who'd moved to third on the sacrifice, scored the tying run when Jacoby Ellsbury beat out a double play. When Tommy Hunter came in to relieve Matusz, he threw two pitches before Ellsbury took off for second. But you know how this game is played; Wieters gunned him down to end the inning.

The game, now tied at 4, became a seemingly endless parade of relievers for the next five innings or so. Aside from Matusz's performance, the O's bullpen chain (Hunter to Darren O'Day to Troy Patton to Jim Johnson to T.J. McFarland) was nearly perfect. No hits, no walks, no errors, and six K's. Only one runner reached base, and that was Ellsbury on catcher's interference in the top of the 10th.

Boston's bullpen was nearly as impressive. Their relievers (Morales to Andrew Miller to Junichi Tazawa to Craig Breslow to Alex Wilson) weren't perfect but they held the O's in check, allowing two walks and five hits and striking out eight. The O's broke through a couple of times before a walk and two hits in the bottom of the 13th sealed it. With two outs, Nick Markakis walked, then Adam Jones singled for his first hit of the night. Chris Davis then fisted a bloop single into shallow left field, scoring Markakis and winning the ballgame. Walkoff complete!