O’s rally, secure win on play at the plate

The Orioles mounted a late rally Friday night, scoring three times after the sixth inning in a 5-4 victory over the Rays that helped them remain tied with the Blue Jays atop the American League Wild Card standings and two games back of the AL East-leading Red Sox.

Zach Britton picked up his 44th save of the season to remain perfect, but it didn’t come without drama. Alexei Ramirez lined a ball down the left-field line with two outs, and Mikie Mahtook attempted to score from first. Mahtook was thrown out at the plate on a relay for the final out of the game. The Rays challenged, and the call was confirmed.

“It was just a great play all around by Manny Machado on the throw and Matt Wieters with the tag,” Britton said. “He does that probably better than anybody in the game [with] that tag right there, and that was huge.”

Ubaldo Jimenez gave up two-run homers in the first and second innings to put the O’s in a 4-0 hole, but they slowly chipped away before Hyun Soo Kim cut the deficit to a run in the seventh inning on a long RBI single with the bases loaded. Baltimore then capitalized on Brad Boxberger’s wildness in the eighth inning. The Rays reliever walked the first two batters of the inning and hit another to load the bases. J.J. Hardy recorded an infield single and Michael Bourn contributed a sacrifice fly to give the Orioles their first lead of the night in the bottom of the eighth.

“It was the most exciting game that I’ve played this year, and I expect that there’s more coming,” Kim said. “So I’ll enjoy every bit of it.”

Evan Longoria hit the first of the Rays’ two homers, a two-run shot in the first inning and his 34th of the season, a new career high. Richie Shaffer added his first of the season an inning later. Pedro Alvarez and Chris Davis went deep for the Orioles to cut into the deficit and help set the stage for the late-inning comeback.

Jimenez overcame the early home runs to go seven innings. Rays starter Chris Archer allowed three runs over 6 1/3 innings and didn’t factor into the decision.

“We’re playing some entertaining ballgames,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “We came up short today, but I love the way the guys continue to go out there and battle. Britton is arguably one of the frontrunners for the Cy Young, and we just gave him quite a fight right there.”

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