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MLB: Rays-Orioles incredible relay play at the plate

The Baltimore Orioles maintained their spot in the MLB playoff chase thanks to a stunning relay throw in the ninth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays.

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The Baltimore Orioles maintained their spot in the MLB playoff chase on Friday thanks to a stunning relay throw in the ninth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays.

With two outs, Tampa Bay's Mikie Mahtook singled off Cy Young candidate Zach Britton. Alexei Ramirez followed with a line drive to left as Mahtook hustled towards home.

Michael Bourn fielded the ball in left and threw a laser to third baseman Manny Machado, who delivered a perfectly placed ball to catcher Matt Wieters for the game-ending tag.

Baltimore rallied from a four-run deficit to win 5-4 thanks to RBIs from JJ Hardy and Bourn in the eighth inning. The win keeps the Os two games behind the AL East-leading Boston Red Sox and in possession of a wild-card spot.

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Evan Longoria hit his career-best 34th homer of the season, a two-run shot in the first inning, for the Rays.

Hanley Ramirez hit his 10th homer in his last 19 games and Clay Buchholz scattered seven hits over six innings as the Red Sox beat the New York Yankees 7-4.

The Yankees fell six back in the division and are four games behind the Toronto Blue Jays and Orioles for the final AL Wild Card.

The Blue Jays rode five scoreless innings from RA Dickey in a 5-0 defeat of the Los Angeles Angels while the Houston Astros remain in the hunt after snapping the Seattle Mariners' eight-game winning streak with a 6-0 win at Safeco Field.

Veteran slugger Mike Napoli drove in four runs in a 3-for-4 performance as the Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers 11-4.

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His first two RBIs came on a fly ball that Justin Upton lost in the lights. The ball bounced over the 19-foot wall in left field for a ground-rule double. Upton later made up for his mistake with a pair of homers.

The Tribe are now just nine wins shy of claiming the American League Central.

Jonathan Lucroy delivered a two-run walk-off single to give the Texas Rangers a 7-6 win over the Oakland Athletics. The AL West-leading Rangers are now 34-10 in one-run games this season.

Chris Sale struck out 10 in his sixth complete game of the season, giving up three earned runs on eight hits as the Chicago White Sox overcame the faltering Kansas City Royals 7-4.

Miguel Montero allowed the Chicago Cubs to celebrate their NL Central title in style by crushing a walk-off homer to left-field in the 10th inning in a 5-4 defeat of the Milwaukee Brewers.

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Trea Turner scored four runs as the Washington Nationals beat the Atlanta Braves 7-2. The Nats' magic number to clinch the NL East crown is now down to six games.

The second-placed New York Mets beat the Minnesota Twins 3-0 on the back of home runs from Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera.

Elsewhere in the NL, the Pittsburgh Pirates edged out the Cincinnati Reds 9-7 in 10 innings, San Diego fell 8-7 to the Colorado Rockies, the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-2 while the San Francisco Giants remained one game ahead of the Mets in the NL wild-card standings with an 8-2 victory over the St Louis Cardinals.

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