Brandon Young appeared to be running on fumes lately.
The former undrafted free agent, in his first full big-league season after never logging heavy inning totals in the minors, was struggling with his form and leaving starts early and having trouble filling the strike zone with his fastballs like he did in the first half of the season.
But it turns out the injured-ravaged Athletics, playing in a minor league ballpark, were no match for him. Young sliced through their batting order and almost never got in a three-ball count and the leadoff guys couldn't reach, and he produced a gem when Baltimore's suspect lineup needed it most. Young went seven innings allowing just five hits and walking one, but couldn't get a decision
Lefty-killer Coby Mayo came through in the 10th with a run-scoring single (off a lefty) with two outs to score the zombie runner, with some help from right fielder Lawrence Butler , and Christian Encarnacion-Strand singled as well and Baltimore escaped, 4-3, at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento in a game it had to win to stay on the periphery of the final Wild Card hunt..
"Coming through in extra innings, I didn't try to do to much," Mayo said on the MASN postgame show. "I got a fastball and just tried to hit it."
The Orioles welcomed Blaze Alexander back for the first time since before the All-Star break from a broken hand and he immediately led off and played shortstop ( uber-slumping Gunnar Henderson was on the bench where he belongs, batting .200 since July ). And he did reach once and it appeared Baltimore might beat up A's struggling starter Jacob Lopez , but that turned out to be anything but the case.
The O's had two on and two out in the second inning against the soft-armed lefty (a recipe for disaster for the Orioles throughout baseball failure Mike Elias's regime running the roster) when Dylan Beavers drove a run in with a hit. Carlos Narvaez had a weird collision running down the line with Lopez that allowed a run to score. Then Beavers, in the latest example of how low IQ Elias's rosters always are, ran through a stop sign after Alexander's single and was thrown out by 20 feet at home plate.
Two more Orioles reached in the third, but Instead of Lopez being on the ropes, he got locked in. He got Leody Taveras to end that inning, he kept Pete Alonso from doing damage, and these days that's generally enough to hold Baltimore at bay.
The Orioles mustered one more hit until extra innings.
Young was better than anyone could have hoped for. He had allowed 31 hits over 25 2/3 innings in his last five starts with a Fielding Independent Pitching of 6.55. But he avoided falling behind in the count and kept his pitch count manageable And he kept the ball down in a ballpark where it can fly out (only three flyball outs.
Young did surrender a solo homer (former Orioles farmhand Jonah Heim ) , and in the 8th Rico Garcia lost the lead. Hitting the leadoff guy in a two-strike count is asking for trouble and following that up with a single is worse. A sac bunt put runners on second and third and Lawrence Butler signed to left, plating a run, but Beavers threw out Jeff McNeil at home.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/orioles/onsi as Orioles Scrounge Out Extra-Innings Win Over A's To Stay On Fringe Of Wild Card Race .
