​The Orioles avoided a sweep and dodged the weather on Thursday when Jeremiah Jackson’s pinch-hit double in the eighth inning delivered Baltimore a much-needed win in the series finale against Chicago. The bottom of the eighth proved chaotic, but for once the chaos swung in the Orioles’ favor. Trailing 2-1, Taylor Ward opened the inning with a strikeout, and the tying and go-ahead runs came aboard on back-to-back hits by pitch. The initial trouble came when Chicago reliever Tyler Ferguson threw a sweeper a bit too far inside, brushing Gunnar Henderson to reach first. On the very next pitch, a sinker got away from Ferguson and nailed Pete Alonso, loading the bases with one out for Baltimore.
Manager Craig Albernaz then pulled off a deft bait-and-switch to set up Jackson’s game-winning hit. The Orioles had originally signaled that Dylan Beavers would pinch-hit for Tyler O’Neill, prompting the Cubs to summon left-handed reliever Ryan Rollison. Albernaz countered by replacing Beavers with Jackson. With the count at 1-1, Rollison tried to sneak a low fastball past Jackson, but JJ drove it into the right-center field gap. Henderson scampered home from second to tie the game at two, and Alonso slid safely under the tag of catcher Miguel Amaya to give Baltimore the lead.
Andrew Kittredge came on for the save in the top of the ninth as rain began to pour over Baltimore. Nico Hoerner reached on an error by Gunnar Henderson to start the inning, but he was quickly erased when he tried to steal second, overslid the bag, and was tagged out by Gunnar. After Ian Happ singled, Kittredge induced what looked like a double-play ball, only for Jackson Holliday’s relay throw to first sail wide. That error wouldn’t prove fatal, as Kittredge then retired pinch-hitter Michael Conforto on a line drive to left to end the game.
The Orioles’ rally followed Tyler Wells allowing a run in the top of the eighth to give the Cubs a brief lead. NL MVP candidate Pete Crow-Armstrong led off with a sinking line drive to right, deflecting off Tyler O’Neill for a double. Alex Bregman followed with a deep center-field sacrifice fly, enabling PCA to advance to third. With the potential winning run 90 feet away, Baltimore’s infield shifted in, and Seiya Suzuki lined a hard grounder through Blaze Alexander for a ball that found the gap, putting the Cubs on top at 2-1.
Before the eighth, offense was hard to come by for both teams. O’Neill gave the O’s an early edge in the second with a solo homer off Cubs starter David Peterson to put Baltimore up 1-0. The home run, coming after he homered in his final two at-bats on Wednesday, marked the third straight game in which the Orioles homered, tying an all-time club record. Yet two recurring trends kept the Orioles from adding insurance: struggles hitting left-handed starters and, it seemed, a desire to keep the SEO value high with headlines. The result, though, was a dramatic comeback in a rain-soaked finale that capped a much-needed victory for Baltimore.