Baltimore Orioles: Stevie Wilkerson Picked Up A Save In Wild Late Night Orioles Win

In a game, most Baltimore Orioles fans were asleep for position player Stevie Wilkerson picked up a save to lock down a 10-8 Birds win.

With the Baltimore Orioles among baseballs worst teams, not many fans stayed up to watch their team play a game that did not end until after 4 a.m. Eastern time Thursday night.

For those who did it must have been quite the treat. The Orioles defeated the Los Angeles Angels 10-8 in a wacky back and forth affair.

If it weren’t for Stevie Wilkerson, the game would never have gone to extra innings in the first place. In the bottom of the seventh Paul Fry took the mound with a 2-1 lead. The bases were loaded, and two men were out when Kole Calhoun lifted a fly ball to centerfield that according to statcast had a 99% catch probability. The centerfielder Wilkerson misplayed it, and the bases would clear as the Angels took a 4-2 lead.

Wilkerson would get his redemption on the top of the eighth however as he ripped a game-tying ground-rule double. In the ninth Baltimore would take the lead on a solo shot by Trey Mancini but that would not be enough to end the game in nine innings. Mychal Givens blew the save in the bottom half of the inning as he allowed a long home run to Brian Goodwin to allow an already wild ball game to continue onwards to extras.

There would be no scoring until the top of the 15th when the just recalled Jace Peterson hit a two-run single, and Hanser Alberto hit an RBI single of his own to give Baltimore an 8-5 lead.

The game, of course, would not end there as the Angels rallied off Tanner Scott to tie the game in the bottom of the 15th.

Unphased, the Orioles retook the lead in the top of the 16th as Jonathan Villar hit a two-run home run in what might have been in his last home run as an Oriole.

With the actual pitchers unable to record a save Brandon Hyde called on none other than Stevie Wilkerson to close the game out. Having pitched in a few mop-up roles this season, Wilkerson must’ve been ready for the spotlight. With a perfect 1-2-3 inning, he became the first position player in MLB history to record a save as he locked down a 10-8 Birds win.

Just like that, the Orioles defeated the Angels in a crisp six hours and 18 minutes.

The Orioles will look to clinch at least a share of the series victory tonight as they send Asher Wojciechowski to the mound fresh off his one-hit outing against the Boston Red Sox last Sunday.