Rally complete: O's come from four runs down to beat Rays 5-4

For the Orioles, the rally finally came. With some big help from Tampa Bay right-hander Brad Boxberger.

The Orioles scored twice in the bottom of the eighth to take a one-run lead and they went on to beat Tampa Bay 5-4 tonight in front of 30,094 loud fans at Camden Yards. The O's came from 4-0 down to post an important win.

The game ended on an out at the plate. Zach Britton got his 44th save but it was not easy. After Steven Souza Jr. flied out to the wall in left for the second out, Mike Mahtook singled. When Alexei Ramirez hit a ball into the left-field corner, Mahtook tried to score and was cut down 7-5-2 to end the game. Video replay confirmed there was no violation of the home-plate collision rule.

Trailing 4-3, the O's faced Boxberger in the bottom of the eight. He walked the first two batters - Jonathan Schoop and Pedro Alvarez - and then hit Matt Wieters to load the bases with no outs.

After missing out on a few big chances in this series, the O's cashed in this time. At least enough to get a lead. J.J. Hardy's grounder to deep short went for a single and 4-4 tie. Batting next, Michael Bourn lifted a sac fly to left to score pinch-runner Nolan Reimold for a 5-4 lead - the Orioles' first lead of the night.

The Orioles had cut a 4-2 Rays lead to 4-3 in the seventh and could have had more if not for a near great catch by Tampa Bay center fielder Kevin Kiermaier. The O's loaded the bases with one out and Hyun Soo Kim drove a ball to deep center. Kiermaier leaped at the wall and, while he didn't make a catch, he brought the ball back into play for a long RBI single and a 4-3 game. But Manny Machado and Chris Davis followed with strikeouts and the Orioles remaining down a run.

The Orioles fell behind again early on tonight and they trailed 4-1 after the second inning. Evan Longoria hit a three-run homer in the first inning last night and tonight he produced a two-run homer in the first. He hit a 1-1 pitch 423 feet to left center for a 2-0 lead. It was his 34th homer and that is a new career high for Longoria.

Coming into this series, Longoria was batting just .193 (11-for-57) with three homers and four RBIs in 15 games this season against Orioles pithching. In the first two games of this series, he is 5-for-9 with two homers and seven RBIs.

Tampa Bay came up with another homer in the second. Souza Jr. led off with a single and scored ahead of Richie Shaffer's first homer of the year for a 4-0 lead. Shaffer drilled a first-pitch splitter.

But after giving up the two early longballs, O's starter Ubaldo Jimenez settled in. He pitched five straight scoreless innings on just two hits from the third through the seventh. Over seven innings he gave up seven hits and four runs on 92 pitches. He kept Tampa Bay at bay after the second, giving his team a chance to rally.

The Orioles went to the longball to cut into that 4-0 deficit. Alvarez blasted his 22nd homer, a solo shot, on a 2-2 pitch in the second. Davis hit a solo homer, No. 38, in the fourth to cut Tampa's lead to 4-2. Davis hit a 3-2 slider 398 feet. It was his 14th home run in his last 28 games. Davis led off the inning with that homer. At that point the Orioles had hit eight homers on the season in 22 innings off Chris Archer.

Tonight it wasn't easy and it wasn't pretty but the Orioles came up with an important win. One where they came back from 4-0 down to win 5-4.