SAN FRANCISCO _ The Orioles were down by six runs heading into the bottom of the fifth inning Sunday afternoon against the Giants, well on their way to boarding a plane back east, left to ponder a disappointing showing during their week in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Instead, down to their final out, the Orioles rallied to beat the Giants, 8-7, at AT&T Park, and the late-inning hero was a familiar one.
Second baseman Jonathan Schoop completed the comeback with a three-run homer off Giants closer Santiago Casilla in the ninth, the last of the Orioles' seven unanswered runs.
Schoop's towering blast to left field, which dropped the collective jaws of the announced sellout crowd of 41,268, was his 12th game-winning RBI, tying him with Chris Davis for the team lead.
It was also the second time on the West Coast this year that Schoop has sent his team back east a winner. On July 6, against the Los Angeles Dodgers, he delivered the winning two-run double in the Orioles' 14-inning victory at Dodger Stadium.
The Orioles salvaged their extended stay in the Bay Area, taking two of three from San Francisco, one of the best teams in the National League, after losing three of four to the last-place Oakland Athletics. They finished their three-city, 10-game trip that began with three games in Chicago with a 5-5 record.
With the win, the Orioles (66-51) remained a half-game out of the American League East lead.
The Orioles came to San Francisco with a string of seven straight quality starts, but in three games along McCovey Cove, no Orioles starter got through six innings.
Left-hander Wade Miley struggled through his shortest of three starts with the Orioles, allowing 10 base runners (eight hits and two walks) through 4 1/3 innings. Miley, who was acquired at the non-waiver trade deadline, was charged with seven runs _ six of them earned _ and now has a 7.04 ERA in three starts with the Orioles.
The Orioles bullpen didn't help him. Right-hander Tyler Wilson allowed all three inherited runners to score in a four-run fifth inning that saw the Giants (66-51) send 10 batters to the plate.
With one run already in, Miley left after walking Brandon Crawford to load the bases with one out. But Wilson immediately allowed three more runs, including backup catcher Trevor Brown's two-run single on his first batter of the game, and the deficit rose to 7-1.
Matt Wieters had a five-hit day _ three singles, a double and a triple _ and scored both of the Orioles' first two runs. Adam Jones drove in Wieters on a two-out single in the fifth and later plated Wieters on a seventh-inning sacrifice fly to right field.
The Orioles cut the Giants' lead to 7-5, and had two on with one out in the eighth, but reliever Derek Law induced a flyout to left from pinch hitter Steve Pearce, and Jones popped up to second to end the inning.
Manny Machado started the Orioles' ninth-inning rally with a one-out single, then moved to second base when the ball got by left fielder Angel Pagan. After Davis struck out looking for the fourth time, Mark Trumbo drew a five-pitch walk to bring Schoop to the plate.
Schoop jumped on an 0-1 pitch from Casilla (2-4), sending a towering drive into the left-field seats that silenced the crowd at AT&T Park.
