Tyler O’Neill hit a three-run homer to left field with one out in the 10th inning, leading the Boston Red Sox to a 5-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday night.
O’Neill hit the home run off Keegan Akin (3-1) after Rafael Devers had struck out. Romy Gonzalez got on base due to a fielding error by second baseman Jackson Holliday, joining automatic runner Jarren Duran.
“That was awesome,” O’Neill said. “Obviously, late in the game, extra innings, you want to come up clutch for the team. I’m just trying to get the run in from third, first and foremost. I was able to put a good swing on that one, for sure.”
O’Neill now has 30 home runs this season. This was his second walk-off RBI of the season and the fifth of his career.
“I wasn’t trying to get the groundball double play,” Akin said. “Just get an out, really. Like an infield popup, get a groundball. Obviously, a punchout would have been great. But yeah, obviously not that result.”
The Orioles are now 1 1/2 games behind the first-place New York Yankees in the AL East, while the Red Sox are four games back from Minnesota for the league’s last wild card spot.
Greg Weissert (4-2) earned the win after allowing Emmanuel Rivera’s RBI single in the bottom of the 10th.
“It’s huge,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “We’ve been pitching, which is awesome, and hopefully at one point we start hitting again. Just grind out the game and we took advantage of one mistake and (O’Neill) put a good swing on it. We obviously needed this one, and hopefully it’s the beginning of something big.”
Playing against the Red Sox for the last time this regular season, the Orioles had tied the game at 2 with two outs in the eighth inning when Anthony Santander hit his 41st homer to right field off Justin Slaten.
