Tuesday night at Harbor Park: Tides 8, Syracuse 7

A brief torrential downpour caused a weather delay of close to two hours at Harbor Park Tuesday afternoon. The scattering of fans who patiently waited were rewarded with a come-from-behind Tides victory.

A big fourth inning

With the Tides down 7-2 in the bottom of the fourth, Victor Diaz ignited the home-team rally with a leadoff double. After a pair of RBI singles, a balk and a sacrifice fly, it was 7-6.

“We’ve been down some games this year and down enough runs where you can almost mail it in,” Tides manager Gary Allenson said. “Next thing you know we’re down one run. Right when you think we’re out of something, the guys string together a couple of runs.”

Melvin Dorta blooped an RBI single to shallow right field in the bottom of the seventh to knot the score at 7-7 and Brandon Pinckney hit a sharp grounder to third that smacked off Syracuse third baseman Mike Morse’s glove, with Diaz scoring the go-ahead run.

Jim Miller, Fredy Deza and Alberto Castillo combined for five shutout innings by the Tides’ bullpen.

Heroic performance

The Tides staked Andy Mitchell to a 2-0 lead after 1u2154 innings, but the righthander struggled through four innings, allowing seven runs on 11 hits. Still, Allenson had nothing but praise for Mitchell.

“The hero of today was Andy Mitchell. Nobody goes out there after a rain delay. Well, he’s the guy that’ll do it. I don’t care how many runs he gives up – we didn’t have enough pitching to get through nine innings.”

Said Mitchell: “It’s tough – usually nobody does it. I told (the coaches) I was fine, I told them I could do it and they let me give it a try. I didn’t expect it to go like that when I went back out there but I’m glad the team battled back and got me off the hook. I’m glad there’s something positive about it – giving up seven runs is never fun. But I knew to help the guys out in the bullpen, I’d have to throw more than an inning. I did what I could.”

Snyder keeps rolling

Brandon Snyder finished 3 for 5 with two runs scored and has hit safely in 12 of 13 games.

“It’s nice to start having some hits fall,” he said.

“I think I kind of gave up on hitting-the-ball-out approach and worked more on a line-drive swing – considering the park we play at. It’s worked so far.”

On the move

The Baltimore Orioles recalled lefthander Brian Matusz from Double-A Bowie and started him against Detroit on Tuesday night in his major-league debut.

The Orioles optioned righty Kam Mickolio to Norfolk. He was 0-0 with an 0.00 ERA in 4u2154 innings over four relief appearances with Baltimore.