BALTIMORE (AP) — Ryan Mountcastle homered twice and tied a team record with nine RBIs, helping the Baltimore Orioles rally from a four-run deficit to a 12-8 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday night.
Mountcastle hit a three-run homer in the fifth inning and added a grand slam in the seventh as the Orioles overcame a difficult home debut for right-hander Grayson Rodriguez.
AS GRAND AS IT GETS pic.twitter.com/p5OCIUlMU9
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) April 12, 2023
Austin Hays homered and had four hits for Baltimore, which handed the A’s their sixth straight loss.
Mountcastle tied the franchise’s single-game mark for RBIs set by Jim Gentile in 1961 and matched by Eddie Murray in 1985. He became the first player anywhere in the majors to drive in nine runs since Adam Duvall in 2020.
Rodriguez allowed six hits and four walks in 4 1/3 innings, although he also struck out six. The Baltimore right-hander — one of baseball’s top-ranked pitching prospects — allowed single runs in the first and third, and after he departed with the bases loaded in the fifth, all of those runners came in to score.
Shea Langeliers capped Oakland’s five-run fifth with a three-run homer off Austin Voth that gave the A’s a 7-3 lead, but Mountcastle answered with a three-run shot in the bottom of the inning and Hays tied it with a solo homer in the sixth.
Sam Moll (0-1) allowed a walk and a hit batter in the seventh, and Hays put the Orioles up 8-7 with a two-out RBI single off Dany Jiménez. Adley Rutschman — who reached base four times himself — was intentionally walked to load the bases, and then Mountcastle followed with a drive over the big wall in left field at Camden Yards.
Oakland had scored just one run over its previous three games, and its big offensive night Tuesday couldn’t overcome a pitching staff that allowed at least three home runs for a fifth straight game. That tied a team record set in 2021.
Bryan Baker (1-0) pitched a scoreless seventh to earn the win.
Mountcastle hit a sacrifice fly in the first and an RBI single in the third.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Athletics: OF Seth Brown, who went on the injured list Monday, has a grade two left oblique strain. Manager Mark Kotsay said the timeline on that generally runs four to six weeks.
UP NEXT
Orioles RHP Dean Kremer (0-0) takes the mound Wednesday night against Oakland LHP Ken Waldichuk (0-2).
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