Wieters walk-off: O's catcher wins it on homer in the 11th

On a night when it looked like the Orioles might lose after Zach Britton gave up a homer in the ninth inning, they tied it in the ninth and won it in the 11th. Matt Wieters led off the 11th with a homer as the Orioles recorded a 2-1 walk-off win over the Atlanta Braves.

The Orioles' fourth walk-off win of the year and Wieters' fourth career walk-off homer lifts the Orioles back to .500 at 49-49. Wieters hit a 1-0 pitch from Luis Avilan out to right-center to end it and give the O's the win to open a seven-game homestand.

After eight scoreless innings, each team scored once in the ninth.

In the top of the inning, Atlanta third baseman Adonis Garcia homered off Britton to break the 0-0 tie. Garcia hit his second homer to right on a 1-0 fastball. It was just the second homer allowed by Britton in 40 2/3 innings.

Jim Johnson came on to protect a 1-0 lead in the last of the ninth and was greeted by an infield single from Adam Jones and a base hit to right by Wieters. That Wieters single, on an 0-2 pitch, sent Jones to third. He scored on J.J. Hardy's sac fly to left and the Orioles tied it at 1-1. Johnson had converted his last seven save chances and had an ERA of 0.44 his last 20 games.

The Orioles got an excellent start from right-hander Kevin Gausman, who went a career-high 7 2/3 innings, allowing six hits and no runs with one walk and five strikeouts. He threw 107 pitches, 70 for strikes, after starting the game with an ERA of 5.18.

Gausman had retired nine in a row when Nick Markakis singled with two outs in the eighth. He went to third on a bloop hit by Cameron Maybin. Buck Showalter then called for Brian Matusz in a lefty-lefty matchup and Matusz fanned Freddie Freeman on a 1-2 pitch to keep it a 0-0 game. But Gausman left in a scoreless tie and is now winless his last 12 starts.

Gausman had allowed 12 runs over 9 2/3 innings in his previous two starts, but tonight produced his second scoreless start of the five he's made in 2015. He blanked Texas for 6 1/3 innings on July 2.

Markakis made his return to Baltimore tonight and was greeted with a long standing ovation at the start of the game. He tipped his cap as the O's fans showed him appreciation for his nine years as an Oriole. Then he promptly doubled to left on a 3-2 pitch to start the game, but was stranded there. Markakis went 2-for-5 tonight.

The Orioles, meanwhile, could not get much going against Atlanta left-hander Alex Wood. Through the first seven innings, they advanced just one runner as far as second base and had just three hits, two in the first two innings. Wood went 7 1/3 scoreless innings on three hits in a no-decision.

In the second game of this series on Tuesday night, Ubaldo Jimenez (7-6, 3.81 ERA) pitches against right-hander Julio Teheran (6-5, 4.49 ERA).