TAMPA BAY, Fla. _ The Orioles didn't make winning look easy Wednesday night. In fact, their 5-4 comeback victory over the Tampa Bay Rays was downright ugly.
Despite several defensive lapses far beyond the five errors they were charged with, the Orioles won on Trey Mancini's two-run double in the ninth inning off Rays reliever Sergio Romo at Tropicana Field.
After Mark Trumbo and Danny Valencia opened the inning with back-to-back singles, Mancini turned on a 3-1 slider, sending it past a diving Mallex Smith in left field and off the wall, scoring both runners and giving the Orioles the lead.
For the Orioles (35-79), it was just their second win in 73 games this season in which they have trailed after eight innings.
After a game where the Orioles allowed a run on a sacrifice popout, made two missed tags at second base, had two wild throws to second on steal attempts and failed to cover second base on a double-play ball, the rebuild might be in need of a viewing of Tom Emanski's defensive drills videos.
Even down to the final out, the Orioles defense struggled as new second baseman Jonathan Villar booted a grounder by Smith with two outs and the ninth. Caleb Joseph's second throwing error of the night on Smith's steal attempt put the tying run on third before right-hander Mychal Givens closed out the game.
Carlos Gomez's two-out RBI double to right field off right-hander Mike Wright in the bottom of the eighth, a fly ball that Valencia didn't appear to think he had a shot at catching and allowed to drop, gave the Rays a 4-3 lead going into the ninth.
Orioles right-handed Andrew Cashner entered the bottom of the seventh inning having retired 17 of the last 18 batters he faced and hadn't allowed a hit since the first inning.
But another late-inning lead dissipated that inning, as Tampa Bay scored the tying run in the seventh on a rare sacrifice infield popout after the Orioles couldn't convert a double-play that could have ended the inning.
Shortstop Tim Beckham was front-and-center of the mess. After Gomez reached base when he was hit by a pitch with one out, Kevin Kiermaier hit a ball to third baseman Renato Nunez, who had to wait for someone to cover second. Beckham rushed over, but missed the bag as Gomez slid into second and was charged with an error.
Tampa Bay loaded the bases on Willy Adames' infield popup to deep short, where Beckham slipped on the infield dirt before making a late throw. No. 9 hitter Michael Perez lifted a bloop pop-up that Beckham caught in shallow left field, but Gomez tagged at third, sped for home and slid headfirst across the plate as Beckham's throw was offline.
Cashner rebounded from one of the worst starts of his career, allowing just four hits over seven innings.
Cashner, who allowed a career-high 10 runs and lasted just 1 2/3 innings in his last start Thursday in Texas, allowed just four hits over seven innings. Cashner settled in after allowing two runs in the first inning on back-to-back RBI singles by Jake Bauers and Joey Wendle.
In that inning, Smith singled and went from first to third on Caleb Joseph's throwing error on Smith's steal of second. Bauers singled home Smith, then attempted to steal second, and Beckham dropped Joseph's throw for an E-6, putting Bauers in scoring position for Wendle's single.
The Orioles hit three solo homers _ including back-to-back shots by Beckham and Adam Jones in the top of the first inning off Rays opener Ryne Stanek. Mark Trumbo's solo homer to open the fourth inning off Rays left-hander Jalen Beeks put the Orioles up 3-2.
Through the first two games of the series, the Orioles have hit five homers off Rays pitching, but all of them have been solo shots. Sixty-three percent of the Orioles' homers _ 89 of 142 _ have been solo home runs.
