What a night; Chris Dickerson's walk-off homer helps Orioles defeat Tigers, 7-5
What a week for the Orioles. After their come-back-from-behind victory
on Wednesday, I didn’t think much else could have topped what I saw
then.
Well, what happened at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on Friday may have
topped that. As you all probably know by now, the Orioles pulled an
amazing win, defeating the Detroit Tigers, 7-5, in the first contest in a
three game series.
With Baltimore down by three, 6-3, in the ninth, Detroit brought in
Jose Valverde to close out the game. He was basically unemployed at the
start of the season; however, Detroit brought him back – because they
had no one else really to close out games!
Anyhow, if there was a closer the Orioles could come back against, it was Valverde.
Then it happened.
Nick Markakis led off the frame with a home run, and then Adam Jones
along with Chris Davis followed up with back-to-back singles. The Tigers
got two outs thanks to horrible at-bats by Matt Wieters and J.J. Hardy;
however, the next batter, Chris Dickerson decided to end things with
one swing of the bat.
He took a Valverde offering and deposited it into right centerfield,
ending the game. The sold out crowd of 46,249 who stayed until the end
were in frenzy, and it felt like the Orioles had won a playoff game or
something. It felt like a rock concert and you were surrounded by
thousands of your best friends dressed in orange and black.
Most of the fans didn’t leave the stadium after the Orioles secured their 31st win of the season – at least until they saw Dickerson pied the face with shaving cream by Jones and Alexi Casilla.
Everyone stayed on the feet from the Markakis homer until the very
end. It was quite a sight to see and just amazing how the community has
responded to the Orioles finally becoming a winning organization.
Opposing teams have to know by now that no lead they build by now is
safe with the Orioles, and that they will fight for all 27 outs.
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