Scott's HR caps wild Orioles win

O's rebound from 6-0 deficit, win in 10

By Jeff Zrebiec | Sun reporter

July 20, 2008

Luke Scott (center) is mobbed by his teammates after hitting a walk-off home run in the 10th inning, which gave the Orioles an 11-10 win over the Detroit Tigers. (Sun photo by Doug Kapustin / July 19, 2008)

They trailed by six runs before their first at-bat. They were then down by a run with only three outs to go.

But all of that became a moot point. Ramon Hernandez tied the game with a solo homer in the ninth inning and then Luke Scott won it with a solo blast in the 10th. Scott hammered Freddy Dolsi's pitch onto the flag court in right field, setting off a wild celebration in a 11-10 Orioles victory before an announced 31,525 at Camden Yards.

If the Orioles (46-50) win today - they have dropped 14 straight Sunday games - they will take the four-game series.

Down to their last three outs, the Orioles watched Hernandez tie the game by driving Joel Zumaya's first pitch of the ninth inning into the left-field seats.

Closer George Sherrill (3-4) then kept the game tied through the top of the 10th, getting help from both his defense and plate umpire Brian Runge. With Placido Polanco on second base and two outs, Gary Sheffield hit a hard single up the middle. Orioles center fielder Adam Jones fielded it and fired a one-hop throw to Hernandez at home. Replays showed that Hernandez tagged Polanco after his foot hit the plate, though Runge called Polanco out.

After allowing seven runs and 12 baserunners over five innings last night, Daniel Cabrera wouldn't have been the most worthy recipient of a victory. Nonetheless, when Cabrera walked off the mound the fifth inning, the Orioles had a two-run lead , and it was up to the their bullpen to protect it.

Two relievers tried in the sixth and neither succeeded. Dennis Sarfate gave up hits to all three batters he faced, and he also committed a throwing error. Magglio Ordonez tied the game at 9 with a sacrifice fly and then Matt Joyce connected for a two-out RBI double off Fernando Cabrera that gave the Tigers a lead and cost Cabrera the victory.

Continuing his recent struggles, Cabrera allowed five hits, including two home runs, five walks and a hit batsman. He also made a costly error. The only positives of his outing was that he threw three consecutive scoreless innings to end it and he left with the Orioles leading 9-7.

It was less than two innings into last nights game and the bad Cabrera had already manifested himself in so many ways.

Before even recording his fourth out, Cabrera had given up six runs and five hits, including two long home runs - a three-run shot by Miguel Cabrera and a two-run drive by Jeff Larish - in Detroit's six-run first inning. When he wasn't laying the ball over the plate to the delight of Tigers hitters, he was hitting Gary Sheffield with a pitch or walking Matt Joyce and Edgar Renteria.

He did himself no favors defensively, booting Sheffield's routine come-backer in the second inning and not even glancing at two runners who executed a double steal to set up another run later in the .

Cabrera finally tossed a scoreless top of the third inning despite two more walks and a stolen base. But the Orioles still trailed, 7-2.

That changed in a big way in the bottom of the third, when the Orioles scored six runs on eight hits - a season high in an inning - while knocking out Tigers starter Nate Robertson.

Brian Roberts got it started with a leadoff double. He then scored when Melvin Mora, who put the Orioles on the board with a two-run homer in the first, drove a single to right field.

Kevin Millar and Scott trimmed the Orioles' deficit to 7-5 with back-to-back run-scoring singles. Tigers manager Jim Leyland then yanked Robertson in favor of Aquilino Lopez, who retired Jones for the second out. However, Lopez surrendered consecutive RBI singles to Hernandez and Brandon Fahey, the latter tying the game at 7.

Roberts put the Orioles ahead, 8-7, with a double down the right-field line, becoming the first Oriole to have two doubles in the same innings since B.J. Surhoff in September 1999. The Tigers finally got out of the inning when Lopez retired Mora, the 12th hitter to bat in the inning, with the bases loaded.

A sacrifice fly by Hernandez in the bottom of the fourth extended the Orioles lead to 9-7.

jeff.zrebiec@baltsun.com