BALTIMORE (AP) — Dylan Beavers singled home a run in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Baltimore Orioles a 3-2 win over the Atlanta Braves on Saturday night.
Jackson Holliday hit a one-out line drive off Didier Fuentes (4-1), and he ended up with a double when left fielder Mauricio Dubón was unable to make a diving catch. Holliday went to third on Colton Cowser’s deep flyout, then Beavers pulled a 100 mph fastball past diving second baseman Ozzie Albies to win it.
The Orioles improved to 9-16 in one-run games after dropping the opener of this series 7-6 in 10 innings. Baltimore is now 2 1/2 games out of the final playoff spot in the American League. The Braves remained 5 1/2 games ahead of second-place Philadelphia in the NL East.
Yennier Cano (2-2) pitched a perfect ninth for the win. Gunnar Henderson homered for the Orioles, and Albies went deep for the Braves.
The starting pitching matchup of Brandon Young vs. Bryce Elder provided material for new “Who’s on First?” routines — and it was all the more amusing since Young is actually nine months older than Elder.
Baltimore’s Young allowed a run and four hits in 6 1/3 innings, walking two and striking out six. Atlanta’s Elder yielded one earned run and four hits in five innings.
Atlanta shortstop Jim Jarvis dropped two popups hit by Pete Alonso. The first of those errors led to a run in the third when Alonso scored on Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s single — a line drive that Jarvis also wasn’t able to handle.
Henderson struck out three times with men on base, but when he came up with nobody on in the fifth he connected for his 18th homer of the year to make it 2-0.
An RBI grounder by Dubón got the Braves on the board in the sixth, then Albies greeted reliever Rico Garcia with a drive to right in the eighth to tie it.
Up next
Reynaldo López (4-3) starts for Atlanta against Shane Baz (4-9) in Sunday’s series finale.
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