BALTIMORE (Interstat) — Dylan Beavers led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a first-pitch home run, capping a late-inning rally and giving the Baltimore Orioles a dramatic 6-5 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in their home finale Thursday evening at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

The Orioles, who would have been assured of a last-place finish in the American League East with a loss, stormed back from a three-run deficit in the eighth inning. The victory guaranteed the Rays consecutive losing seasons for the first time since a four-year stretch from 2014-17.

In a game that saw the teams combine for 24 hits, the Rays built their lead on the strength of a 15-hit attack. Tampa Bay broke through in the third inning against Baltimore starter Cade Povich. The rally began with a single by Bob Seymour and a flyout. Yandy Díaz and Junior Caminero followed with consecutive singles to load the bases. Christopher Morel then cleared them with a line-drive double to left field, scoring Seymour and Díaz. A sacrifice fly by Richie Palacios brought home Caminero to give the Rays a 3-0 lead.

Baltimore got one run back in the bottom of the frame when Ryan Mountcastle launched a solo home run to right field off Rays starter Jesse Scholtens.

Tampa Bay extended its lead to 5-2 in the sixth inning. Palacios singled and later scored on a double by Tristan Gray, though Gray was thrown out at the plate on the play. Seymour followed with an RBI single to plate Gray.

Scholtens, who struck out nine batters over 5 1/3 innings, was relieved by Drew Rasmussen after allowing a run in the fifth. Rasmussen provided 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief, but the game turned in the bottom of the eighth.

Rasmussen recorded the first out before being replaced by Kevin Kelly. Mountcastle worked a walk, and Jeremiah Jackson singled to put runners on the corners. A wild pitch by Scholtens, who had re-entered the game, allowed Mountcastle to score, cutting the deficit to 5-3. Then, with two outs, Coby Mayo connected on a first-pitch offering from Kelly, sending a two-run homer to left field to tie the game at 5. Adley Rutschman followed with a triple, but Kelly escaped the inning without further damage.

After the Rays went down in order in the top of the ninth, Beavers stepped to the plate to lead off the bottom half. On Kelly’s first pitch, Beavers launched a fly ball to right field that cleared the wall, setting off a celebration for the announced crowd of 16,777. The game time was 2 hours, 54 minutes.

Keegan Akin (5-4) earned the win with a perfect top of the ninth inning. Kelly (2-5) took the loss, surrendering the game-tying and game-winning home runs, both on the first pitch of the at-bat.

With the result, the Rays fell to 77-82 on the season, while the Orioles improved to 75-84. Both teams conclude their regular seasons with three-game road series this weekend, with Tampa Bay traveling to Toronto and Baltimore visiting New York to face the Yankees.

The final score of 11 runs combined went under the pregame over/under line of 8.5, despite the Rays having been installed as a -1.5 run favorite. The outcome was a reversal of the projection from Interstat’s game simulator, which had predicted a 5-3 Orioles victory, though their ELO system gave Baltimore a slight 51.4 percent probability to win.