There is something about Sept. 6 at Camden Yards.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto came within an out of a no-hitter, only to allow a home run to Baltimore’s Jackson Holliday. Then the Orioles turned that solo shot into the start of a four-run rally in the bottom of the ninth, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-3 on Saturday night.
The Dodgers have lost five straight, wasting a chance to pull away in the NL West from second-place San Diego, who are also slumping.
Photo: AFP
“It’s hard to recount a game like this where there’s so many things you feel like you can get a little bit of momentum, build off a great outing by Yoshinobu and take that into tomorrow,” Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said, adding that “obviously it completely flipped.”
It was unquestionably the win of the year for the last-place Orioles, who have been a disappointment pretty much all season. They were celebrating the 30th anniversary of Cal Ripken Jr.’s 2,131st consecutive game, which broke Lou Gehrig’s record on Sept. 6, 1995.
On Sept. 6, 1996, at Camden Yards, Eddie Murray hit his 500th home run. For a while, it looked like Yamamoto would be adding another memorable moment to the ballpark’s history on this date. Instead, it was the Orioles who made the night special.
“We’ve been in a bit of a rut lately,” Yamamoto said through a translator. “We got to overcome this little hard time.”
There still has not been a no-hitter in the major leagues this year.
Yamamoto came close. The 27-year-old right-hander from Japan allowed only two baserunners — both on third-inning walks — until the ninth. By the eighth, Holliday could do the math and game out who might make the final out if Yamamoto completed his gem.
“I was like, ‘Oh man, it’s going to come down to me,’” Holliday said. “I was definitely thinking about it, and kind of nervous because it’s kind of a big thing. It was fun to be able to break it up. He threw the ball really great.”
Camden Yards has hosted only one no-hitter since opening in 1992, and it was by another Japanese star. Hideo Nomo threw one on April 4, 2001, for the Boston Red Sox against the Orioles.
Holliday’s drive just cleared the fence in right. Then Roberts took out Yamamoto, who had tied a career high with 10 strikeouts and set one with 112 pitches.
“The game doesn’t end until the final out is made,” Emmanuel Rivera, whose two-run single ultimately won it, said through a translator.
Blake Treinen relieved Yamamoto, and that is when everything went sideways for the Dodgers. He gave up a double to Jeremiah Jackson, hit Gunnar Henderson and walked Ryan Mountcastle and Colton Cowser to make it 3-2.
Then Tanner Scott came in with the bases loaded and gave up Rivera’s single to center.
“It doesn’t work when you walk a guy, and then you hit someone and then walk another guy and all of a sudden the winning run’s on second and we put someone in a position they shouldn’t have to be in,” Treinen said. “I had to get one flippin’ out. I didn’t do it.”
Ripken was honored before the game in a ceremony that included Hall of Famers Eddie Murray, Jim Palmer, Mike Mussina, Eddie Murray and Ken Griffey Jr.
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