The Orioles appeared to be on the brink of another exciting late-inning comeback on Tuesday night, but there's this guy named Mookie Betts who simply cannot be contained at Camden Yards.
Betts, who hit five home runs over two games here the last time he was in town, hit two more and provided all the offense the Boston Red Sox needed to score a 5-3 victory and tighten the already razor-close American League East standings.
He delivered the kind of heroics Red Sox fans have come to expect from their MVP candidate, who has 28 home runs, 89 RBI and leads the major leagues with 285 total bases. But he has taken his performance to a whole new level at Oriole Park.
In all, he has seven homers and 13 RBI in his last 16 at-bats here.
"He's been having that type of year against most everybody,'' Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. "He's a really good player having a big year, but I thought we did a lot of good things to get back in the game."
And to think the big story Tuesday night in the seventh inning was the combined no-hitter that former Oriole Eduardo Rodriguez and reliever Matt Barnes were working on until Steve Pearce broke it up after one out with an infield single.
Betts already had given the Red Sox a three-run lead with his first homer of the night off Orioles starter Yovani Gallardo, but the Orioles went from being no-hit for 6 1/3 innings to tying the game on a two-run single by Matt Wieters and a bases-loaded walk to Adam Jones in the seventh.
They left the bases loaded in that inning and would soon regret it after Betts came up with a runner on in the eighth and launched his second homer, a two-run shot to left off reliever Brad Brach.
Though the Orioles made a little noise against the struggling Boston bullpen in the eighth, the Red Sox held on register their fifth victory in a row and pull even with the O's in the standings with a 66-52 record.
Gallardo only threw the one big mistake pitch, but it was a painful outing for him on another level. He was hit just below his pitching elbow by a shot off the bat of Dustin Pedroia in the fifth inning, but stayed in the game. He walked the next batter before winning a tense duel with David Ortiz and giving up that first homer to Betts.
Though Gallardo was wearing a tight wrap on his bruised arm, he seems confident he would be ready to make his next scheduled start.
"It's all right,'' he said. "He got me pretty good, but I'll be all right."
E-Rod forced out of no-hitter: Rodriguez was pitching a terrific game entering the fifth inning and he had just been staked to that three-run lead by Betts, but he had to exit the game with tightness in his left hamstring. Rodriguez, who had not allowed a hit, was replaced by reliever Matt Barnes and was not eligible to get the decision.
Gallardo gets Betts: Gallardo walked a batter in each of the first five innings, but got out of a third-inning jam after the Red Sox loaded the bases on a pair of hits and a base on balls. Betts came up with two outs and hit a long fly ball to right field, but Chris Davis ran it down to end the inning.
Betts gets Gallardo: When opportunity knocked again for Betts in the fifth inning, he did not hesitate. Gallardo had just gotten a big ovation for striking out Ortiz with two runners on, but Betts jumped on the first pitch from Gallardo and lined it into the left field seats for his 27th home run of the season. And he would not be done.