Orioles 9, Guardians 5: Eight-Run Third Wrecks Griffin

Fourteen batters. Eight hits. One inning.

September 9, 2026 - Baltimore - Chase DeLauter hit a two-run homer in the first, and Camden Yards was 2-0 Cleveland. Foster Griffin had the lead. Then the third inning happened, and the lead was gone for good.

The Baltimore Orioles beat the Cleveland Guardians 9-5. Dylan Beavers had two hits and three RBI in that third. Coby Mayo added a solo homer in the sixth, his 22nd. The Associated Press recap said Baltimore had lost seven of eight before it sent 14 batters to the plate against Griffin. Eight hits. Eight runs. Griffin (15-5) was done after 2 1/3 innings and 62 pitches.

Partly cloudy, 85 degrees, wind out to left at 11 mph. Attendance 16,222. Game time 2 hours, 42 minutes. The third inning felt longer than that.

DeLauter's first, then Baltimore's parade

Steven Kwan singled to open the game. DeLauter hit his 14th homer to right-center. 2-0. José Ramírez walked later and did not score. Jo Adell singled and struck out three times. Cleveland had the first punch. Baltimore had the rest of the night.

The Associated Press described the third in detail. The first two Orioles singled. Beavers tried to bunt twice. Griffin bounced a pickoff throw into the outfield, and both runners moved up. Beavers doubled the other way to left. Tie game. A single and a walk loaded the bases. Griffin hit Christian Encarnacion-Strand to force in a run. 3-2. Jackson Holliday singled Pete Alonso home. 4-2. Rece Hinds' sacrifice fly scored Mayo. 5-2. Jeremiah Jackson singled Encarnacion-Strand home. 6-2. Leody Taveras singled Holliday home and chased Griffin. 7-2. Beavers came up again and singled Jackson in. 8-2.

That is eight runs before Cleveland recorded a second out that mattered. Shane Baz (6-15) spent the rest of the night pitching with a lead he almost never gets. The AP noted he had received 19 runs of support over his previous 14 starts. Wednesday he had eight after three innings.

Beavers finished 2-for-5 with a double, a run, and three RBI. Taveras went 2-for-4. Carlos Narváez went 2-for-4 with a steal and scored in the third. Alonso walked twice and scored. Mayo walked, scored twice, and later homered. Holliday drove in one. Encarnacion-Strand's RBI was the hit-by-pitch. The inning did not need a homer. It needed traffic and a starter who could not throw a strike when he needed one.

Lowe and Bailey cut it. Mayo answered.

Baz lasted 5 2/3: six hits, five runs, one walk, five strikeouts, 100 pitches. He was not sharp. He was ahead. Nathaniel Lowe hit a two-run homer to right in the sixth, his 17th, Travis Bazzana scoring. 8-4. Patrick Bailey doubled Angel Genao in. 8-5. Baz was out. The 8-2 lead was a three-run game.

Mayo hit his 22nd homer to left-center in the bottom of the sixth. 9-5. That was the last run. Josh Walker threw 1 1/3 scoreless. Yennier Cano put two on in the eighth. Rico Garcia got the last five outs for his seventh save: two hits, three strikeouts, 24 pitches. Cleveland put Kwan and DeLauter on the bases again and did not score.

DeLauter finished 2-for-5 with the homer and two RBI. Kwan went 2-for-5. Genao went 2-for-4 and scored. Bazzana walked, scored, and did not get a hit. Ramírez went 0-for-4 with a walk. Brayan Rocchio went 0-for-4. The Guardians had nine hits and still lost by four because one inning buried them.

Baltimore is 71-76. Cleveland is 74-73, still in the AL wild-card picture and still chasing the White Sox in the Central. A 9-5 loss on a night the starter gave up eight in one inning is the version of September that shrinks a race. The Orioles had lost seven of eight. They won this one because they kept batting in the third until Griffin left.

Matt Festa threw 2 1/3 scoreless after Griffin. Franco Alemán allowed Mayo's homer and struck out three. Daniel Espino finished the eighth. The Cleveland bullpen did its job. The third inning had already decided it.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Baltimore at 16 team fantasy points, fifth on Wednesday. Garcia's five-out save checked in at 9.66 pitching FP. Cleveland's team score did not crack the top 10. An eight-run inning with 14 batters will fill a team board even when the starter is Baz at 6-15.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: ESPN recap and box score, MLB.com Gameday wrap, MLB.com schedule, and AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*