Friends. Fellow citizens of Birdland. Tonight’s baseball game was not for the faint of heart. The Orioles prevailed in 12 innings, but it was an ugly win. They split their two-game series with the Nationals and finished the road trip with a 4-1 record. They remain at the top of the AL East in a virtual tie with the New York Yankees, who also won tonight. How did we get there?

For eight-and-a-half innings, tonight’s game was pretty chill. Kyle Bradish was inefficient but effective. The offense was relatively quiet but got the team to the last inning with a 3-1 lead. Manager Brandon Hyde called on his closer, the well-rested Craig Kimbrel. Kimbrel got two quick outs and the win seemed in hand.

Then it all went to hell.

Eddie Rosario, the Nationals’ #8 hitter with a sub-.500 OPS, homered off of Kimbrel to right field. It cut the lead to one with just one out left to go. But Kimbrel could not get it. He walked the next batter. And then he walked the next batter (although several of the pitches were borderline). After that, for the second time in as many appearances, Craig Kimbrel was pulled from the game without completing the save.

Keegan Akin replaced Kimbrel needing just one out to close out the win. The normally solid Akin threw a wild pitch and then allowed an RBI single to tie the game. Akin finally did get that third out and the game went to extra innings.

The offense wasted both the ghost runner and a one-out walk from pinch hitter Ryan O’Hearn in the top of the 10th, then Albert Suárez came on for the bottom of the inning. He was excellent with a quick 1-2-3 inning. On to the 11th!

Our old friend, Hunter Harvey, came in to pitch for the Nationals in the 11th. If you haven’t been following Harvey since he left the Orioles, he has been very good. Adley Rutschman grounded out to bring up Ryan Mountcastle, who happens to be Harvey’s good friend and former roommate. The two have faced each other just one other time, in 2022.

As broadcaster Melanie Newman recounted that first faceoff in which Mountcastle homered off of his friend, Mounty turned on an 89 mph splitter and sent it 386 feet for a two-run homer. Mouncastle is now 2-for-2 against his friend.

Welp.

Suárez got one out but a walk and an automatic double that bounced over the left field fence knocked in the ghost runner and put runners on second and third. Jacob Young hit a fly ball to medium right field. Rosario tagged up from third and scored the game-tying run ahead of McKenna’s throw. It wasn’t a great throw. Once again, it was a tie game.

Jordan Westburg started the top of the 12th on second base as the ghost runner with Jorge Mateo at the plate facing a righty. That’s not his normal strength, but tonight he got the job done with a little help from the Nationals’ defense. Mateo singled through the left side of the infield. Westburg chugged home.

The throw from the outfield was cut off in the infield and bounced away. Mateo raced for second as the pitcher, Jordan Weems, picked up the ball and fired it to second base. It skipped past the second baseman and went into center field allowing Mateo to reach third. That play was big because to Weems threw a wild pitch to the very next batter that allowed Mateo to come in and score what would end up being the winning run.

On we went to the bottom of the 12th. Just two pitchers remained in the bullpen for the Orioles, Jacob Webb and Mike Baumann. Luckily for all of us, Hyde did not go with Baumann. It was up to Webb to close things out.

Things began poorly. With CJ Abrams on second base, Luis García hit a ball out to McKenna in right field. He always finds a way to be in the action, doesn’t he? The ball was smoked at 105.9 mph and went over McKenna’s head. Abrams scored and García landed on second base. Just like that, back to a one-run game. But thankfully for my heart, Webb locked things down from there. A strikeout and two more fly ball outs to McKenna and the game was finally over. McKenna is known as a defense-first player, but lately he seems like a liability everywhere. I’m not supposed to be that nervous for routine fly balls.

For the most part tonight the bullpen was good. Yennier Cano, Danny Coulombe, and Cionel Pérez especially looked great. Akin struggled tonight but has typically been good so far this year. Webb got the job done in the end. But without Kimbrel as a solid option at the end of the game, everything is disrupted.

So many pitchers were needed tonight because, in addition to the game going 12 innings, Kyle Bradish was once again unable to go more than five. Bradish started the game out looking dicey, putting on two baserunners in the first and surrendering his one and only run in the second.

As Bradish put it in his postgame interview, he was fighting his mechanics in this game. He had good velocity and swing-and-miss stuff, but his command was off. The Nationals were not getting a lot of hard contact off of him, in fact, the hardest hit ball against him was just 92.4 mph. But he was inefficient with his pitches leading to an exit after just five innings.

In his fifth and final inning, Bradish struck out the side with ease. CJ Abrams went down swinging, as did Luis García. And on a 1-2 count he froze Nick Senzel with a pitch in the middle outside of the plate. Pumped, Bradish let out a yell as he stalked off the mound. His final pitching line was 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 9 K. He hit a batter and had one wild pitch. He threw 90 pitches, 56 strikes.

Two innings later, Gunnar Henderson joined this dinger party. The then tie-breaking home run was Henderson’s 11th of the season, which ties him for the major league lead. It was one of two hits for Henderson on the night. He also played good defense including two double plays balls that he handled at second base on his own. He’s pretty good.

The final pre-extra-innings run scored by the Orioles came from a sacrifice fly from Colton Cowser, who knocked in his good buddy Westburg. Cowser seems to have come out on the other side of his slump. He also singled and doubled in the game and just missed a home run late in the game.

Orioles win, 7-6 in 12 innings. Tomorrow they have an off day and I think that both they and we could use it. They will be back in action on Friday at Camden Yards against the defending NL champion Arizona Diamondbacks.