Tampa Bay Rays Pull Off Miraculous Comeback Win By Scoring 12 Straight Runs

Rays mount impressive rally against the Baltimore Orioles.
Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Junior Caminero (13) and outfielder Josh Lowe (15) react after scoring runs against the Baltimore Orioles in the seventh inning at George M. Steinbrenner Field.
Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Junior Caminero (13) and outfielder Josh Lowe (15) react after scoring runs against the Baltimore Orioles in the seventh inning at George M. Steinbrenner Field. / Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

The Tampa Bay Rays found themselves staring at an 8-0 deficit in the second inning of Wednesday night's game against the Baltimore Orioles. It would have been easy to mentally concede the contest and chalk it up as the type of lopsided loss that can happen when you play 162 games a year. But the home team kept fighting, chipping away at the O's lead inning by inning until it disappeared and the Rays took control en route to a 12-8 victory.

The Rays scored three runs in the third, one in the fourth, four in the fifth and five more in the seventh to match the largest comeback in franchise history and the most impressive rebound from any team in Major League Baseball this season.

“Pretty amazing. I don't know if I have the words,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said from the victorious clubhouse. “I'm really impressed with them, proud of them. They stayed at it.”

The unbelievable rally gave Tampa Bay their 20th win in the last 27 tries and continued a torrid stretch that has allowed them to pull within 1.5 games of the New York Yankees in the American League East. The Yankees lost their sixth straight game on Wednesday night.

As improbable as the Rays' come-from-behind win was, it is perhaps surprisingly nowhere near the largest in MLB history as three different teams have erased 12-run holes and four more 11-run holes. Ten others have trailed by 10 runs and navigated their way to victory.


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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.