BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
Orioles win second straight in walk-off fashion as Jones scores on error in 10th
For the second time in as many days, the Orioles used some late-inning magic to extend the best record in the American League.
The Orioles strung together singles by center fielder Adam Jones and second baseman Jonathan Schoop in the bottom of the 10th inning, then Jones scored on a fielding error on a chopper back to pitcher Jordan Lyles to give the Orioles a 3-2 win over the Colorado Rockies on Monday night at Camden Yards.
The victory was the Orioles’ (58-40) fifth straight, and brought them to a seasonhigh 18 games over .500.
“It’s good to get a win any way you get it this time of year — we’re right around 60-some-odd games left,” manager Buck Showalter said. “It’s a given what the other people in our division are going to do in our mind. We’ve just got to have more runs than them in nine innings. It’s a challenge. It’s so hard to do what our guys are doing right now.”
On Sunday, it was outfielder Nolan Reimold, whose pinch-hit, walk-off home run gave them a 5-3 win over the Cleveland
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Indians. The conclusion of Monday’s game was just as dramatic. Third baseman Manny Machado hit the ball softly back to Lyles on the mound, who dropped the ball. He quickly gathered it up, but his throw to catcher Nick Hundley was low. Hundley didn’t catch it, and Jones slid in safely for the winning run.
“It doesn’t matter how you score,” Jones said. “As long as you win the game, that’s all that matters.”
Chaz Roe earned his first win of the season after pitching a scoreless 10th inning, combining for 31⁄ innings of scoreless relief with Mychal Givens and Zach Britton. Yovani Gallardo allowed a pair of runs in 62⁄ innings. Missed opportunities early ... : The Orioles were left to rue a set of missed opportunities for big production in the early innings, opportunities that were mostly due to mistakes by the visiting Rockies. Schoop’s 28th double of the year, followed by an error by Colorado’s Gold Glove third baseman Nolan Arenado and a walk, loaded the bases for the Orioles in the first inning.
First baseman Chris Davis struck out and catcher Matt Wieters grounded out to end that inning without a run. In the second inning, the Orioles had runners on second and third with one out following another error by Arenado, but only scored once before Schoop grounded into a double play. … but not late: The Orioles trailed 2-1 entering their half of the seventh inning, but the bottom of the batting order sparked a longawaited rally. Reimold was revealed on video replay to have been hit by a pitch. He went to third base when right fielder Dariel Alvarez worked an eightpitch at-bat and doubled to left field. Jones drove Reimold home with a ground ball to shortstop. Arenado gets it back: Arenado, on par with Machado as one of the game’s elite defenders, entered the game with just one error on the season before committing two within the first two innings Monday. He atoned quickly, hitting his 26th home run of the season to lead off the fourth inning and tie the game at 1.
“The first run, it was a pretty good pitch he hit out,” Gallardo said. “He’s a pretty good hitter.”
The only other blemish on Gallardo’s night was a pair of two-out singles that plated Colorado’s second run in the seventh inning. Stop running: In his first game back since getting hit on the foot with a pitch last Monday in New York, Wieters showed that the time off did his throwing arm some good. Wieters ended the fifth inning throwing out former Oriole Mark Reynolds at second as one half of a strikeout-caught stealing double play. Wieters has thrown out 11 of 31 would-be base stealers this season. Gallardo added a pickoff of his own when he caught center fielder Carlos Gonzalez off first base in the seventh.