Talk about flair for dramatics. The Baltimore Orioles won in the bottom of the ninth and held to first place after defeating the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 Wednesday night.
They stay tied with the Yankees in the American League East and pulled a game away from the Rays.
Manny Machado, the youngster who was recently called up and only 20-years-old, came up with a big play in the game at the top of the ninth right before he stepped up to the plate.
Evan Longoria hit a dribbler to Machado at third base, with Rich Thompson running to third, Machado pumped faked a throw to first and immediately turned to Thompson, who had taken a big lead off third base, and threw the ball to a J.J. Hardy who ran over from short stop to cover third base.
They ran Thompson down and the Rays' threat was over.
Machado then led off the inning with a single to left as they were playing him deep. Robert Andino provided a sacrifice bunt that moved Machado to first and the Nate McLouth stepped up to the plate and provided the big bopper.
McLouth hit a sharp liner down the line off of Kyle Farnsworth. The ball hit off the top of the wall and stayed fair by maybe a foot or two.
Machado was waived in and the Orioles won the game.
During a postgame interview, while live on camera, Machado was pied in the face and McLouth could be seen in the background with ton of whipped cream on his face.
The Orioles will look for the sweep of the Rays tomorrow as they wrap up their series. Wei-Yin Chen will take the mound for the Orioles and Jeremy Hellickson for the Rays.
