Baltimore Orioles: Two strikes, with two outs, who cares!

The Baltimore Orioles came back to win their 6th game in a row on Friday night, and they did it in style. Four times at the death, and they pulled it out.

Friday night, under the lights, with fireworks after the game… what more could upscale this type of hype? After going down early to a Mike Trout 3-run bomb, the Baltimore Orioles looks anything but exciting. Then the 7th inning came, and then the 8th, and finally the 9th.

After getting back within one run to start the 9th inning, Dillon Tate gave up a launch ball to the face of MLB The Show 22 to make it 4-2. The way it happened, you could almost hear the air leave Camden Yards and would have thought that the game was over for sure.

After the first two outs happened almost methodically for the Baltimore Orioles, Rougned Odor stepped up with one out left. Rougie went down to two strikes early and had to fight his way on. After getting on with a slashing single to right, he stole 2nd and then 3rd with none other than Adley Rutschman at the plate.

Baltimore Orioles: Two strikes, with two outs, who cares!

Much like Odor, Adley quickly acquired a two-strike count after already striking out in the 7th inning. However, the magic felt right like a few days ago, as the O’s former No.1 prospect smashed a double into right-center and drew the game back to 4-3.

Feeling like he wanted to get into the party once more, Cedric Mullins was not to be outdone. This at-bat felt like it took forever to get to a 1-2 count because Ceddy just kept fouling the ball off. He was waiting for his pitch, and he got it. An off-speeder right down the heart of the plate turned into another 2-out double, and Adley got on his high horse and scored to tie it up.

I’m sure that I wasn’t the only Baltimore Orioles fan clinging to their breath yet releasing a sigh of relief as Trey Mancini came to bat. Have you noticed a theme here? Something about a 2-strike count, right? Trey got two strikes early like his teammates before him but fought back.

When a passed ball took Mullins to third, all Trey needed was a base hit to win it all. As fate would have it, Ralsel Inglesias hung a slider, and Boom Boom took him out to left. For the third time in five nights, the O’s won in a walk-off fashion, only this time it took four 2-out, 2-strike counts to add to the Orioles’ Magic! O-R-I-O-L-E-S!!!!!