The Baltimore Orioles won Game 1 of the AL Division Series against Detroit Tigers by the score of 12-3 and now they are up 1-0 in the series and heading into ALDS Game 2 they will have some momentum after pushing in eight runs in the bottom of the eighth inning on Thursday night.
The eighth inning was a big one and after Miguel Cabrera cut the lead to one, the Orioles batted around and took a 12-3 lead. An error led to a run in the bottom of the eighth and Nelson Cruz had an RBI after his home run earlier and the team continued to make plays, with Ryan Flaherty, Jonathan Schoop and Alejandro De Aza all getting hits to bring in runs.
Miguel Cabrera gave the Tigers a chance by hitting a home run in the top of the eighth inning and that cut the lead to 4-3 for the Orioles going into the bottom of the eighth. Alex de Aza scored a run after getting on base with an error from Andrew Romine and that was a huge insurance run after Cabrera homered in the previous half of the inning. The team added another run after Adam Jones stole second base with Nelson Cruz bringing him in with a hit for the sixth run.
The game started off as a breeze for Chris Tillman after striking out the side of Ian Kinsler, Torii Hunter and Miguel Cabrera and after that the Orioles hit back. The team got a hit from Nick Markakis and got De Aza on with a hit by pitch and after a couple play, Nelson Cruz homered to right center field. The Tigers bounced back in the next inning off Tillman, with Victor Martinez and JD Martinez hitting home runs and after that the Orioles added another run from a Markakis single to take the lead.
The teams went back and forth through the third and fourth innings before the Orioles got into some trouble with Tigers on base, but Detroit couldn't capitalize. Steve Pearce nearly hit a homerun in the sixth, but it hit off the wall and since he wasn't hustling out of the box he ended up getting thrown out at second. The next inning the Orioles shut things down and in the seventh JJ Hardy hit a homerun and that led to the eighth where Cabrera gave the Tigers a one run deficit with a home run. The Orioles did not let that one run hold though.
