The Orioles were down 7-0 today against two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal. That’s more than an uphill climb. It’s a height that’s normally impossible to scale.

The unpredictability of this team and this season shined again at Comerica Park. Exhilarating and infuriating, at times only seconds apart. The Orioles scored five times in the seventh inning and twice in the eighth in one of the craziest comebacks in a long time. There’s no way anyone could have seen it coming.

The next task was to complete it, to do more than just pull even, and the Orioles eventually did with an insane 10-9, 12-inning victory over the Tigers.

Spencer Torkelson hit a game-tying, two-run homer, the 100th of his career, on Rico Garcia’s first pitch of the 11th inning. Colton Cowser was 4-for-29 against left-handers and fell behind 0-2 to Drew Sommers with two outs in the 12th before grounding a single up the middle for a 10-9 lead.

Grant Wolfram had runners on first and second with no outs in the bottom of the 12th and retired the next two batters. Andrew Kittredge recorded his fourth save with both of those runners in scoring position.

As MASN analyst Ben McDonald said, “This is called stealing one.”

This team can be called a lot of things.

The Orioles’ last win after trailing by at least seven runs was on June 30, 2009 against the Red Sox. They’ll head into the off-day with a 53-56 record after losing two of three in the past two series and taking two of three from the Tigers.

Neither team scored in the 10th. Gunnar Henderson was doubled off second base after shortstop Kevin McGonigle made a lunging catch of Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s line drive. Coby Mayo drew his second walk leading off the 11th against Jacob Waguespack, Leody Taveras laid down his ninth sacrifice bunt of the season and Encarnacion-Strand scored on catcher Yohel Pozo’s sacrifice fly, his first Orioles RBI.

Jackson Holliday stayed red-hot with an RBI single off Sommers. The Tigers bullpen fell apart again. But Garcia has surrendered a home run in four of his last five games.

Tyler Wells kept Detroit scoreless in the ninth and 10th.

Skubal shut out the Orioles on three hits over 6 2/3 innings before Taveras’ RBI single in the seventh. He walked one, struck out six and left to a standing ovation.

Maybe he should have stayed. Reliever Kyle Finnegan let two inherited runners score and two of his own without retiring a batter.

Skubal reached 1,000 career strikeouts after disposing of leadoff hitter Taylor Ward in the first. He retired 14 in a row before Henderson’s leadoff single in the seventh.

Skubal’s scoreless streak against the Orioles was snapped at 31 2/3 innings. And he might have made his last start with the Tigers. How can they possibly buy after blowing this game?

Some observations from home.

How to sustain a rally

The Orioles were able to tally five runs in the seventh because Mayo drew a two-out walk against Skubal before Taveras’ run-scoring single. Jeremiah Jackson had one of the best plate appearances of the season with a 12-pitch walk against Finnegan. Holliday came off the bench and delivered a two-run single up the middle, stole second base and scored on Ward’s two-run single down the right field line.

A 7-1 deficit was shaved to 7-5.

Holliday was hitting .365 with a .923 OPS in July after his at-bat. He struck out in the ninth, but his single in the 11th raised his July average to .370 and his season average to .260 with a .767 OPS.

Drew Anderson walked Henderson leading off the eighth and Dylan Beavers reached on a fielder’s choice – a really dumb decision by Gleyber Torres to try for the out at second base. The runners moved up on a groundout and Mayo produced his first career triple on a 417-foot fly ball off the center field fence at 105.6 mph.

This guy is hitting right-handers, too.

Back-to-back strikeouts kept the game tied.

Wondering if Rogers changes neighborhoods

Did Trevor Rogers make his final start with the Orioles in 2026?

If so, the door is open for his return in 2027. He’s a pending free agent with a publicly stated preference to stay with the Orioles.

Money talks, but Rogers will listen to the Orioles.

In the meantime, the Orioles could trade him by the deadline, whether they’re technically buyers or sellers. It may be hard to differentiate if they peel away some players on expiring contracts but also try to add major league talent – controllable preferred – and try for a Wild Card berth.

Rogers allowed four earned runs and seven total with eight hits, no walks and six strikeouts in six innings. His ERA rose to 4.27.

Rogers didn’t give up four runs since May 29. He wasn’t as sharp as usual, but the defense made his life much harder with three errors.

RIP RISP drought

The Orioles didn’t move a runner into scoring position last night in a 14-0 loss. They accomplished it today after two batters.

Pete Alonso lined a single into left-center field in the first inning and raced to second base after Javier Báez bobbled the ball. Alonso moved to third on Henderson’s ground ball and was stranded after Tyler O’Neill flied to center with the count full.

O’Neill’s ball traveled 395 feet – a long out.

Mayo flied out in the fifth at 413 feet to center. An inning earlier, Encarnacion-Strand’s fly ball to center traveled 406 feet.

Rare Alonso miscue

Alonso is building a case for the American League’s Gold Glove at first base. It isn’t pretty. He spends a lot of time in the dirt, even taking throws from his infielders, but he began yesterday with only two errors and four Outs Above Average, compared to minus-9 in each of the previous two seasons with the Mets.

A three-run third inning against Rogers seemed disastrous for the Orioles.

Rogers cruised through the first two innings today, but Torkelson led off the third with a sharp single into left field. Matt Vierling doubled down the left field line, with Torkelson holding at third base only because the ball struck the fence and kicked out to Ward.

Báez poked an RBI single into right field and got caught in a rundown with a wide turn around first base. The Orioles should have recorded the out while Vierling stood at third in a 1-0 game, but Alonso threw away the ball. Vierling came home, and Báez moved to second and later scored on a couple of fly balls.

Three runs, two earned, one monumental challenge.

More defensive adventures

Taveras made a terrific sliding catch in right-center with a runner on first base, but he could stop Vierling’s ball in left-center from rolling to the fence leading off the fifth inning.

Taveras slid, the ball got past him, and it took three tries to pick it up.

Vierling reached third base and left with an injury. The play was scored a triple.

Pinch-runner Zach McKinstry came home on another Báez single into right field with the infield in, and the Orioles were down 4-0. And it got worse against Rogers, who allowed seven runs in his previous seven starts over 43 2/3 innings.

Hao-Yu Lee’s sacrifice fly, the sixth for the Tigers in the series, bumped the lead to 5-0.

Encarnacion-Strand made a diving stop along the line and threw out Dillon Dingler to prevent another run from scoring. But he also committed an error on Riley Greene’s ground ball leading off the sixth, and Henderson followed with a throwing error. Two more runs scored on McKinstry’s double.

McKinstry was 5-for-46 against left-handers before today.

Down on the farm

Caden Hunter, the No. 11 prospect in the system per MLB Pipeline, made his Double-A debut this afternoon and carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning. He allowed one hit, walked two and struck out 10 in seven frames.

Hunter, a sixth-round pick in 2025 out of USC, had a 1.17 ERA in six games with Single-A Delmarva and a 1.60 ERA in 10 games with High-A Frederick. He’s struck out 112 over 75 innings at three levels.