A dramatic comeback in Frederick and a disappointing loss in Baltimore

Some baseball games have many twists and turns. For reporters trying to produce a story on the game, key elements of the game and the story keep changing.

That was true of last night's Carolina League playoff series opener in Frederick between the Keys and Lynchburg. First the story was Lynchburg's starting pitcher dominating the Keys. But then Frederick changed the script, scored four runs in the seventh and finally got to Lynchburg's Aaron Civale. The Keys led 5-4.

But not long after that, the Keys made two critical errors and Lynchburg changed the script, scoring five unearned runs to lead 9-5 in the eighth. The story would be that the Keys gave the game away.

But then the Keys scored once in the eighth and four in the bottom of the ninth for one final and dramatic change of the script. They wrote an amazing ending.

Frederick scored once on two hits in the first six innings. And then nine runs on 11 hits the last three innings to beat Lynchburg 10-9 with a ninth inning walk-off win that moves them a victory away from taking the best-of-three series. Lynchburg was the dominant team in the league this season, going 87-52, but now Frederick is poised for a possible series upset.

When it was over, Keys manager Keith Bodie very nicely put in perspective what we witnessed at Nymeo Field.

"The thing that I will take away from tonight is watching those kids. They played their hearts out," Bodie said. "Just watching them was pretty special. I've seen a lot of these games and been in a lot of them, but I've never seen the emotion of a team like I saw tonight. It was pretty special."

It was indeed. But when Frederick allowed those five runs in the eighth, the blown game storyline was also on the mind of their manager.

"It took the air out of my sails, I'll be honest with you," Bodie said. "It was like, uh-oh. But we had the right people in the right spots. I think that full moon had something to do with it. That was pretty fun."

Playing just his fourth game since being called up from Single-A Delmarva, outfielder Jake Ring had the game-ending single after Randolph Gassaway's two-out infield hit tied it at 9-9. Before that in the ninth, a Glynn Davis RBI single made it 9-7 and a Jomar Reyes sac fly made it 9-8.

The quartet of Reyes, Gassaway, Ring and Shane Hoelscher went a combined 9-for-17 with four doubles, five runs and eight RBIs.

"Jake Ring was just absolutely awesome tonight," Bodie said. "Big hit (two-run double in the seventh) with the bases loaded. Huge hit to win the game. He had a very good year in Delmarva and was rewarded by coming here and joining this club. For all our players, being exposed to a playoff game, I think that helps development. It helps every kid in that room right there. Everybody came up big tonight."

But when asked to cite one player whose performance maybe most stood out to him, Bodie tabbed the player that scored the game-winning run.

"You know, (outfielder) Jay Gonzalez has a broken hamate. He could have gone on the DL. He begged me to stay on the field and contribute in some way," Bodie said. "We pinch-ran him at first base. I envisioned him sliding home with the winning run and it happened. That was pretty special."

Yep, it was a special night at a ballpark in Frederick. The game was no masterpiece by any stretch, in fact, the Keys made four errors. But for drama and excitement, the Keys' win last night is hard to beat.

Bowie comes up short: Meanwhile, in the Double-A Eastern League playoffs, Altoona beat the Bowie Baysox 2-0 in the opener of a best-of-five series. Altoona's Mitch Keller gave up one hit in a complete-game effort on 90 pitches. Keller's brother, Jon, was an O's minor league pitcher until yesterday afternoon, when he was traded to Colorado as the player to be named for the Orioles' acquisition of right-hander Miguel Castro on April 7.

Bowie hosts Game 2 tonight at 7:05 p.m. as left-hander Tanner Scott (0-2, 2.22 ERA) gets the start against Curve right-hander Alex McRae (10-5, 3.61 ERA).

O's hit the road: The Orioles are now two games behind Minnesota for the second American League wild card after Thursday's 9-1 loss to the Yankees. New York won the series, two games to one. The Orioles had won 11 straight home series versus the Yankees dating to September 2013 until this loss.

O's pitchers have allowed 51 runs over the last eight games and have allowed seven or more runs five times in that span. Over the last four games, O's starting pitchers have combined to pitch just 13 1/3 innings, allowing 18 runs (16 earned).

Meanwhile the O's offense has produced just 20 runs the last six games. They have gone 3-for-43 with runners in scoring position in that span.

Now the Orioles face the red-hot Cleveland Indians (84-56). They have won a franchise-record 15 straight games. They just completed an 11-0 road trip to New York, Detroit and Chicago. The last team to win more than 15 in row was the 2002 Oakland A's, who won 20 in a row. Cleveland is 24-4 in its last 28 games and has a magic number of 12 to win the AL Central.