BALTIMORE (AP) \u2014 After spending the last year-and-a-half struggling to build on an impressive rookie season, Colton Cowser is coming through in the clutch again.<\/p>\n
Cowser hit a walk-off home run for the second consecutive day on Monday to complete the Baltimore Orioles\u2019 9-7, 13-inning victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, one he said was one of his “favorite complete team wins.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fifth overall selection in the 2021 draft is hitting .333 with all three of his home runs over an eight-game stretch. The third homer, Monday\u2019s two-run shot, followed Sunday\u2019s three-run drive to decide a 5-3 victory over Detroit to open a split doubleheader.<\/p>\n
He became Baltimore\u2019s first player to hit walk-off homers on consecutive days since Fred Lynn on May 10-11, 1985, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of those things where \u2026 you get to see guys who are not getting the results they want, but the work they\u2019re putting in and the collaboration with our hitting coaches, trying to problem solve an approach or a swing adjustment, a stance, whatever it is,\u201d Orioles manager Craig Albernaz said. \u201cTo see it come through at the biggest moment on the biggest stage, against a really good team. Yeah, I couldn\u2019t be happier, prouder for Colton.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cowser also made a pivotal head-first slide in the 12th inning for the Orioles, who rallied from two down in the 11th and 13th and one down in the 12th for their first victory in four tries against the AL-leading Rays.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know where he tagged me,\u201d Cowser said. \u201cI just felt contact kind of on this arm. I didn\u2019t know what it was. It turned out it was his leg.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cowser homered 24 times in 2024 and finished second in AL Rookie of the Year balloting, but followed that with a .196\/.289\/.385 slash line in 2025. Even after his recent uptick, he’s posting similar .200\/.287\/.316 numbers in 2026 through Monday.<\/p>\n
But his teammates think his holiday weekend could be the start of the return to the guy they knew two seasons ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, we all know what he\u2019s capable of,\u201d said O\u2019s starter Kyle Bradish, who allowed a run in six innings long before the drama unfolded. \u201cAnd I think he\u2019s starting to get out of whatever he was in and starting to be the player that he is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BALTIMORE (AP) \u2014 After spending the last year-and-a-half struggling to build on an impressive rookie season, Colton Cowser…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[89015,5,1125,51332,36510,916,1510,4,2145,9500,9501,9496,9497,39139,22871,297,84938,2550,68,2551,2549],"class_list":["post-709115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-rays","tag-baltimore-orioles-colton-cowser","tag-baseball","tag-colton-cowser","tag-craig-albernaz","tag-fred-lynn","tag-gunnar-henderson","tag-kyle-bradish","tag-mlb","tag-nick-fortes","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-32562-ap-online-other-sports-news","tag-product-40779-ap-delaware-maryland-sports-only","tag-product-40780-ap-florida-sports-only","tag-rays","tag-ryan-additon","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabayrays"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}