– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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BALTIMORE — Colton Cowser only had one chance with the bat to make an impact on Wednesday night.
He sure made an impact, alright!
Coming in as a defensive replacement in the top of the eighth inning, Cowser smacked a tie-breaking two-run home run in the bottom of the inning to lift the Orioles to a 4-2 victory over Atlanta inside Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Rookie starter Cade Povich, making his second career Major League start and first at home, tossed six scoreless innings for Baltimore, who has now won six straight.
Cowser came into the game as a defensive replacement in right field in the top of the eighth inning, yet one of the first things he saw while in the game was a two-run homer by Matt Olson sail over his head and the high right-field wall that tied the game. On the very next pitch, Cowser made a nice running catch near the wall in foul territory off the bat of Austin Riley.
In other words, Cowser was already into the flow of the game after just a half and inning, and when his turn came in the bottom of the frame after a Ryan Mountcastle single, Cowser was ready to pounce. As a matter-of-fact, Cowser jumped on the first pitch he saw, crushing Joe Jiménez’s fastball to deep right-center field and over the wall — and just over the glove of a leaping Michael Harris II — to give the Orioles the lead right back.
“I knew that if I came into the game, I was going to get an at-bat,” Cowser said. “Coaches in the tunnel did a great job, kind of gave me an idea of who I was going to face.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Wednesday evening’s game, with photos taken by DC-area photographer Michael R. Smith. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 21 pictures in total.
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