Baltimore pinch-hitter Delmon Young smacked a three-run double in the eighth inning Friday to give the Orioles a 7-6 victory over visiting Detroit in the Major League Baseball playoffs.
The victory gave the Orioles a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series. They can complete a sweep of the Tigers and advance to the American League Championship Series with a victory in game three Sunday at Detroit.
For the second game in a row, the Orioles secured the victory with a scoring explosion in the penultimate inning.
Trailing 6-3 as they came to the plate in the bottom of the eighth inning, the Orioles began their comeback when Adam Jones was hit by Detroit relief pitcher Joba Chamberlain.
Nelson Cruz followed with a single to left field, Steve Pearce then singled to right to score Jones and send off Chamberlain in favour of Tiger reliever Joakim Soria, who promptly walked J.J. Hardy to load the bases.
Young, a former Tigers standout slugger, then went to the plate in place of Ryan Flaherty and smacked the first pitch he saw into left field, sending the base runners speeding for home plate.
The throw to the catcher was slightly off target and Hardy was able to slide well and tag the plate with his left hand before being tagged out, providing the Orioles their margin of victory.
Baltimore reliever Brad Bach took the victory while Soria was tagged with the loss.
Nick Markakis smacked a two-out home run over the right-field wall in the third inning to give Baltimore a 2-0 lead.
But Detroit answered with five runs in the fourth inning to seize command, the first run coming when Victor Martinez singles to score Torii Hunter from third base and advance Miguel Cabrera to second.
J.D. Martinez followed with a three-run homer to left field and the next batter, Nick Castellanos, blasted a solo homer to rightfield to give the Tigers a 5-2 edge.
All the runs were surrendered by Orioles starting pitcher Chen Wei-Yin, a 16-game winner thie year. The 29-year-old Taiwanese left-hander allowed seven hits while striking out three.
The Orioles pulled within 5-3 in the fourth when Adam Jobnes singled, reached second on a Nelson Cruz ground out and scored on J.J. Hardy's single to left field.
But Detroit stretched its advantage in the eighth when Hunter walker, took second on a Cabrera single and scored on Victor Martinez's double up the middle, giving the Tigers a 6-3 edge and setting up the dramatic comeback by the Orioles in the bottom half of the inning.
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