Baltimore Orioles: The best Orioles game of the 2016 season

The Baltimore Orioles finished 2016 with a record of 89-73, a wild-card loss to the Toronto Blue Jays in extra innings in what would be considered a successful year.

The Baltimore Orioles biggest game of 2016 wasn’t the lone wild-card game, but the game a week earlier in Toronto. To look at their most exciting games of the year, check this out.

The Birds headed north coming off a much-needed sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks, only to have their struggling bats silenced in game one of the series in a 5-1 loss.

Kevin Gausman again received no run support from the offense and allowed an early home run to Josh Donaldson, as Aaron Sanchez continued his successful season in the win for Toronto.

That loss, combined with the Detroit Tigers win over the Cleveland Indians, left the Orioles one game ahead in the race for the second Wild Card spot.

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Game two of the series was played on September 28th at Rogers Centre.

The game started in ugly fashion for the Orioles. Ezequiel Carrera reached on a bad fielding play by Chris Tillman and Chris Davis, with Davis getting an error. Then, Tillman attempted to pick off Carrera, putting him on third base. A sacrifice fly by Edwin Encarnacion made it 1-0 in the first inning.

The Orioles were hitless through the first three innings, but got two quick hits in the fourth with no outs, only for Francisco Liriano, who struck out 10, to strike out Manny Machado, Mark Trumbo, and Trey Mancini to end the threat.

Meanwhile, the Jays had put a run across in the second to run the score to 2-0 Toronto.

In the fifth, the Orioles loaded the bases, but again all three outs came via the strikeout and this team that struggled to get runners in was at it again.

The O’s went down 1-2-3 in the sixth, and then got a huge double play on a fly ball double play in the bottom half when Jose Bautista got doubled up. That ended Chris Tillman’s day, and Donnie Hart, Mychal Givens, and Brian Duensing would pitch the next two and a third innings, leaving up absolutely nothing.

In the seventh, the Orioles again got baserunners on, only for strikeouts to again ruin the inning.

The major league leader in home runs, Mark Trumbo, struck in the eighth off Jason Grilli (very few people I would rather see a home run hit against) on a solo shot to put the Birds within one going into the ninth.

The Jays brought in closer Roberto Osuna, who established himself as an excellent closer in 2016, following up his successful rookie campaign in 2015.

The inning began with, what else, a strike out by J.J. Hardy. Jonathan Schoop singled and then was pinch-run for with Michael Bourn.

Meanwhile, Hyun Soo Kim came to the plate to bat for Nolan Reimold. Bourn stole second, and Kim worked the count full and saw nine pitches in the at-bat.

Kim hit the ninth pitch of the at-bat to right field, just high enough to clear the tall Rogers Centre wall.

It was pretty clear the ball was going to clear Bautista in right field, but when the ball cleared the wall into the Orioles’ bullpen, the bullpen and bench went wild.

With a one-run lead, the team turned to Zach Britton to face the Jays’ 8-9-1 hitters. You can imagine how that went. Two strikeouts and a ground out later and the Orioles gained a pivotal victory.

The win kept them one game behind Toronto for the first wild card, and also one game ahead of Detroit for the second wild card.

Next: 5 of the most exciting Orioles games of 2016

The Baltimore Orioles would go on to win their next two to help solidify their playoff standing, but no game was bigger than the one in which Hyun Soo Kim, a villain to fans when the season started, became the greatest hero in 2016 for the Baltimore Orioles.

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