masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgA rain delay, a rally and a win. And a Joey Rickard curtain call.
The O’s started a winning rally before a brief rain delay of 21 minutes in the bottom of the seventh. When play resumed they scored twice to go from trailing by one run to leading by one. They won 4-2 tonight to record an impressive season-opening three-game sweep of the Minnesota Twins at Camden Yards.
Mark Trumbo and J.J. Hardy singled off Twins starter Phil Hughes to put runners on the corners in the seventh when the rains…

A rain delay, a rally and a win. And a Joey Rickard curtain call.

The O’s started a winning rally before a brief rain delay of 21 minutes in the bottom of the seventh. When play resumed they scored twice to go from trailing by one run to leading by one. They won 4-2 tonight to record an impressive season-opening three-game sweep of the Minnesota Twins at Camden Yards.

Mark Trumbo and J.J. Hardy singled off Twins starter Phil Hughes to put runners on the corners in the seventh when the rains came. After the delay, Trevor May came on and threw a wild pitch to tie it 2-2. One out later Jonathan Schoop’s single to center gave the Orioles the 3-2 lead.

Rickard’s nightly heroics waited for the bottom of the eighth inning. He drove a 1-0 pitch over the center field wall for his first career homer and a 4-2 lead. The small but hearty crowd of 11,142 kept chanting his name and finally he went to the dugout’s top step to tip his cap to the crowd. Rickard is batting .455 through three games.

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The Twins took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first against Ubaldo Jimenez. Danny Santana reached on a bunt single with one out, but catcher Caleb Joseph threw him out trying to steal. Then Joe Mauer followed with a homer to right-center on a 90 mph fastball for the 1-0 lead. Mauer, who had been 1-for-14 off Jimenez before, drilled a 2-0 pitch and it was his 1,700th career hit.

An inning later the Twins made it 2-0. Eduardo Escobar singled with one out and went to third when first baseman Chris Davis was charged with a two-base error on a hot smash off the bat of John Ryan Murphy. Byron Buxton’s groundout scored Escobar and that unearned run made it 2-0.

The O’s finally got on the board off Hughes on Manny Machado’s solo homer to left in the sixth as they trailed 2-1. Machado hit a 90 mph fastball for his first homer.

Jimenez really settled in after those opening innings. He went seven innings on the night, allowing eight hits and two runs (one earned) with no walks and nine strikeouts, matching his season high for 2015. Jimenez threw 107 pitches and got his first win of 2016.

O’s starters went 14 innings in this series, allowing 10 hits and three runs (two earned) for an ERA of 1.29. O’s pitchers allowed just two runs in each game of the series.

Right-hander Dylan Bundy made his season debut, pitching a scoreless eighth that ended with Joseph throwing a runner out at second. With Zach Britton throwing 43 pitches the first two days and Darren O’Day throwing 31, O’Day closed it out getting the save in the ninth.

The Orioles start a three-game series tomorow at home with the Tampa Bay Rays. Right-hander Chris Tillman (0-0, 0.00 ERA) faces right-hander Chris Archer (0-1, 3.60 ERA).