DETROIT (AP) — One day after breaking up a no-hitter in the ninth inning, Gunnar Henderson homered and doubled to help the Baltimore Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers 4-2 on Saturday.
Henderson drove in two runs and scored twice to help the Orioles move within two games of the AL East-leading Yankees. The All-Star shortstop tripled with two out in the ninth for Baltimore’s only hit in a 1-0 loss to Detroit on Friday night.
The Tigers trailed 4-0 going into the ninth on Saturday, but Parker Meadows ended Detroit’s scoreless streak at 15 innings with a homer off Seranthony Domínguez. Colt Keith followed with a single, but Domínguez retired Kerry Carpenter and Riley Greene on deep flyballs.
Wenceel Pérez struck out, but reached first when the ball got away from James McCann. Spencer Torkelson made it 4-2 with an RBI single before Zach McKinstry grounded out to first.
The Tigers (76-73) had won five of six. They are trying to track down the Twins for the third AL wild card.
Corbin Burnes (14-8) pitched seven innings of two-hit ball for Baltimore. He struck out seven and walked one.
Beau Brieske tossed a scoreless first inning to become the first Tigers pitcher to start on back-to-back days since Hal Newhouser in 1946.
He retired the first four batters on Friday, but walked the first two hitters on Saturday before Anthony Santander grounded into a 3-6-1 double play. He then struck out Adley Rutschman to record an MLB-record fourth straight start without allowing a hit.
After walking to start the game, Henderson doubled off Ty Madden (1-1) in the third and scored on Cedric Mullins‘ base hit.
Baltimore added three runs in the seventh.
With one out, Kenta Maeda hit Emmanuel Rivera with a pitch. Rivera took third on Livan Soto‘s double and scored on McCann’s sacrifice fly. Henderson followed with a 106.7-mph line drive into the service tunnel behind the right-field fence.
Henderson has 37 homers on the season. He has scored 113 runs, the most by an Oriole since Roberto Alomar’s franchise-record 132 in 1996.
UP NEXT
The teams finish the series on Sunday afternoon in a game moved to 12:10 p.m. because of the Lions-Buccaneers game next door at Ford Field. Baltimore LHP Cade Povich (2-8, 5.91 ERA) will face RHP Keider Montero (5-6, 4.88 ERA).
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Dave Hogg, The Associated Press