Diamondbacks top Orioles 8-5 in 10 innings on Del Castillo homer

Adrian Del Castillo turned a tense, see-saw night at Oriole Park at Camden Yards into a Baltimore gut punch, crushing a 420-foot, two-run homer in the 10th inning to lift the Arizona Diamondbacks past the Orioles, 8-5, before 17,028 fans.

The game had kept drifting toward a breakaway moment for either side, and Baltimore kept doing just enough to stay alive. Jeremiah Jackson homered and drove in three runs for the Orioles, giving Brandon Hyde’s club the kind of offensive lift that has made this series so volatile. But every time Baltimore answered, Arizona found another timely swing to keep the game from settling in the Orioles’ favor.

Del Castillo supplied the first major jolt with a two-run triple in the third inning, then delivered the decisive blow against Tyler Wells in the 10th. The blast gave Del Castillo five RBIs for the night, along with his first career triple, and erased any chance that Baltimore’s late resistance would turn into a comeback win.

That is what made the loss sting for the Orioles. Baltimore had chances to separate earlier and had enough offense to make the game feel winnable deep into the night, but the bullpen and defense could not preserve the tie once extra innings began. Entering the game, the Orioles’ relievers had held opposing hitters to a .199 average and ranked fourth in the majors in strikeouts, a strength that made Wells’ rough 10th inning stand out even more sharply.

The defeat left Baltimore at 9-9 and marked its first extra-inning loss of the season. Arizona improved to 11-8 and finished a nine-game, three-city road trip at 6-3, taking two of three at each stop. For the Orioles, the takeaway was less about one bad inning than the larger pattern it reinforced: the bats are doing enough to keep games within reach, but close games still tilt the wrong way when the late innings demand precision.