O's throw it back to '11, beat WC-hunting Sox

BALTIMORE -- It didn’t have the dramatics or the impact of Robert Andino, but a decade later, the Orioles are doing their part to impede the Red Sox’s playoff chances once again. The most recent example came Tuesday night, when Baltimore rallied for a 4-2 win over Boston at Oriole Park on the 10-year anniversary of Andino’s spoiler heroics.

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“Playing spoiler is a lot of fun,” starter Bruce Zimmermann said. “As a Baltimore native, it’s the eve of the anniversary of Andino, the Red Sox killer. I was a kid watching that game, and it definitely is a lot of fun to be able to do that on the anniversary of that game.”

Tuesday's stakes weren’t as high as that famous game from 2011, with five still to play and the Red Sox tangled up in a messy five-team Wild Card race. Come Sunday, though, they could be, especially if the Orioles keep winning. As it stands, Baltimore began what could be a bracket-busting week vs. the Red Sox and Blue Jays by coming back against Chris Sale while the Yankees beat the Blue Jays in Toronto.

“That [expletive] sucked,” Sale said. “It’s not really us versus anyone. It’s us versus us. We need to win games.”

Pulling ahead on Pedro Severino’s RBI single in the sixth, the Orioles parlayed Ryan Mountcastle’s 32nd homer and Zimmermann’s return into beating Sale for the first time since Aug. 18, 2014. Since joining the Red Sox in 2017, Sale had been 8-0 with a 2.16 ERA in 11 starts against Baltimore entering Tuesday. Working on a prescribed pitch count, Zimmermann countered with four innings of one-run ball in his first start since June 13, potentially capping an injury-interrupted rookie season for the Baltimore native on a solid note.

“I knew it was going to be a super tight timeline rehab-wise, but I wanted to push as much as possible to get back,” Zimmermann said. “Hopefully have a good outing, put a good foot forward into the offseason. It was definitely a challenge.”

It’s unclear if Zimmermann will get another start before season’s end. If he does, it would be Sunday, when an Orioles win could mean playing sudden-death spoiler if the Wild Card chaos continues. Either way, they’ll head into the winter pleased with what Zimmermann showed in a 12-start sample. The left-hander pitched to a 4.66 ERA in 63 2/3 innings after making the rotation out of Spring Training.

All his outings prior to Tuesday’s came before June 13, when Zimmermann landed on the injured list with left biceps tendinitis. He ended up missing more than three months after compounding the injury with a right ankle sprain suffered in conditioning drills days before he was set to return in August. Still, of the four left-handed prospects the Orioles auditioned in 2021 -- Keegan Akin, Zac Lowther and Alexander Wells were the other three -- Zimmermann proved the most productive.

“I’m looking forward to this offseason in general,” Zimmermann said. “Being able to come back and have a start like this, it’ll hopefully send me into the offseason riding a little bit higher and really confident.”

That’s what this final stretch of games is about for the Orioles, who are finishing the season far from full strength but not entirely without incentive. Lowther starts Wednesday and Wells on Thursday, giving those southpaws a chance to end their rookie campaigns on bright notes. Mountcastle is swinging to separate himself in the AL Rookie of the Year race, which is about as tight and convoluted as the Wild Card standings.

For the Orioles to make noise in the latter, they’ll need to continue winning without Anthony Santander, Tyler Wells, Tanner Scott and several other injured regulars. If they lose, implications loom for the top pick in the 2022 Draft; Baltimore entered Tuesday tied with Arizona for that position.

“We did some good things offensively against one of the elite starters in this game,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “I just want to be competitive. We’re facing good teams that put themselves in a great position to play in October. Hopefully one day we’re going to be in that spot. Until that point, I just want to stay competitive, give everybody a good game and give us a chance to win every single night.”