Dylan Beavers’ tiebreaking infield single in the seventh inning allowed the Baltimore Orioles to win another close game against Pittsburgh, completing a three-game sweep of the visiting Pirates with a 3-2 victory Thursday afternoon.
The Orioles (70-77) have won eight of their last nine games and finished a 5-1 homestand that began against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Baltimore scored a total of eight runs in sweeping the Pirates, with the first two outcomes also by one-run margins but in extra innings.
Baltimore’s Jackson Holliday went 2-for-4 to push the former No. 1 prospect’s batting average to above .250 for the first time in nearly a month. Beavers also had the winning single in the 10th inning Wednesday night.
Rookie reliever Grant Wolfram (3-0) notched the victory with one scoreless inning. Keegan Akin worked the ninth for his fifth save despite Alexander Canario’s one-out infield single. The game ended when pinch runner Oneil Cruz was thrown out on an attempted steal of second base by catcher Alex Jackson.
Canario homered and joined Jared Triolo and Nick Gonzales with two hits for the Pirates (64-83), who’ve lost six in a row via sweeps by the Milwaukee Brewers and Orioles.
Starting pitchers Johan Oviedo of the Pirates and Cade Povich of the Orioles both went 5 2/3 innings and allowed two runs on five hits. Povich struck out six and walked two, while Oviedo fanned five and walked three.
Colin Holderman (0-2) was charged with the loss when he was responsible for the run when Beavers singled in Holliday off Evan Sisk.
The Pirates put two runners on base with two outs in the eighth but didn’t convert when Kade Strowd struck out Spencer Horwitz.
Pittsburgh scored first on Gonzales’ first-inning single. The Orioles posted the next two runs, with Emmanuel Rivera’s first-inning groundout and Coby Mayo’s second-inning single providing the runs.
The Pirates had two hits in the first inning, matching their total from Wednesday night’s 10-inning loss.
Canario’s sixth homer of the season leading off the second tied it for the Pirates.
