BOSTON — It wasn’t the prettiest at-bat of Samuel Basallo’s career, even if that major league career is only three days old. But the rookie put the ball in play, and sometimes that is what it takes to find success at this level.

The swinging bunt from Basallo, who served as a pinch hitter in the top of the 11th, forced him into acrobatics as he attempted to avoid stepping on the ball on his way to first. In a two-strike count, he swung at a sure ball, one that was only about six inches above the dirt.

But he got the runner home from third and gave the Orioles a lead in extra innings. How he did it doesn’t matter nearly as much.

The same goes for the throw from Colton Cowser in center field in the bottom of the 11th. With Nate Eaton on third, a medium-depth fly ball set up what should’ve been a play at the plate. But as Cowser unleashed a throw, Eaton stopped his tag-up attempt and retreated. The throw, it turns out, was far off line. Eaton should’ve scored.

The Orioles caught a break, though, and right-hander Corbin Martin earned the save to seal a wild 4-3 victory in 11 innings.

With that victory, Baltimore has won three straight series, all against playoff-caliber teams. The Orioles are out of that race — a dismal start to the year dug a hole too deep — but suddenly, they are playing spoilers for others despite a makeshift bullpen to back their starters.

Baltimore is 43-34 in its last 77 games. That equates to a .558 winning percentage, which is the fifth-best in MLB over that span. Starting with a 16-33 record proved too much from which to dig out.

“I think our core guys, like Gunnar [Henderson], Jackson [Holliday], Adley [Rutschman], I think they are kind of starting to understand the leadership role here and they’re kind of standing up for themselves,” said right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano. “I think that is the major change.”

For Basallo to be in that spot at all took a gamble from interim manager Tony Mansolino, who opted against starting him for a third straight game. Before first pitch, Mansolino said he wanted to give Basallo time to review his first game catching, which came the night before.

But with right-hander Garrett Whitlock on the mound and a runner on third, Mansolino called over to Basallo, a left-handed bat. He then watched the 21-year-old closely.

“I’m paying attention to see, like, is he nervous?” Mansolino said. “This is a really big moment he’s going up for and, for me, if he was nervous, he probably would have taken the first pitch, because that would have been abnormal.”

Basallo swung. He fell into a 0-2 hole. Then, Basallo said, “I think God controlled the ball in that situation.”

He swung at Whitlock’s changeup diving toward the dirt and got just enough on it to bring home the winning run.

“I just tried to put the ball in play,” Basallo said through team interpreter Brandon Quinones. “In that situation, you can’t try to do too much and be the hero, so to speak. Can’t really focus on trying to hit the ball out of the ballpark. My goal was to put the ball in play and try to make something happen in that moment.”

He did, and by doing so, he rescued what was an up-and-down performance for the bullpen.

This had been a story highlighting the turnaround of a starting rotation since August began, before the bullpen played with fire. A fire alarm went off around Fenway Park in the eighth inning and paused the game. It should’ve blared for right-hander Yaramil Hiraldo, who wanted the ball in the ninth but couldn’t seal the deal.

Before the game, when Mansolino was asked who might pitch in a save situation given the inexperience of this Orioles bullpen, Hiraldo’s name came up.

So Hiraldo got the ball. He then gave up the lead.

Hiraldo, a 29-year-old with eight previous major league games under his belt, walked the leadoff batter and served Nathaniel Lowe a first-pitch fastball that the recently acquired hitter sent deep beyond the right-center field fence for a game-tying two-run shot. Despite walking the bases loaded with two outs, he forced a game-extending force out that sent it to extras.

“It became a little bit of a mess early on,” Mansolino said. “But fortunately, Hiraldo settled down and bases were loaded, he was in a big spot and he got us through the inning right there and gave us a chance to extend the game.”

And once there, an Orioles offense that had been quiet since the fifth inning didn’t heat up immediately. They struck out three times around one walk to strand the automatic runner at second against left-hander Aroldis Chapman.

Boston faced Yennier Cano in the bottom of the 10th, and he, too, managed to load the bases by hitting a batter with the automatic runner on and surrendering a one-out single. But Holliday turned an inning-ending double play, shoveling an Abraham Toro groundball to Henderson from the infield dirt, to move the game to the 11th.

Once there, Basallo just wanted to make contact after Jeremiah Jackson advanced from second to third on a Dylan Carlson groundout.

“Contact is king,” Mansolino said. “For a long time in this game, it was the three-true outcomes [home run, strikeout, walk] and contact was overlooked. But when you got runners in scoring position, contact wins.”

Baltimore continued its run of strong pitching performances behind Sugano at Fenway Park. The turnaround has been recent, and it has been stark. The Orioles went from one of the worst rotations to one of the best in recent weeks, and Sugano’s five innings with one unearned run lowered the ERA of Baltimore’s starters to 2.26 in August, which is the lowest in the majors.

The unearned run occurred in the third, after the inning extended because of Holliday’s error at second base on what could’ve been a double play. Connor Wong, at third, feinted toward the plate. Sugano had already stepped off twice. His third disengagement resulted in a balk that allowed Wong to score.

Besides that, Sugano limited baserunners. And he had a lead with which to work because of Ryan Mountcastle’s RBI single and Cowser’s RBI double in the fifth. A third run scored that inning via a wild pitch.

Sugano handed a two-run lead over to left-hander Keegan Akin, who worked two scoreless innings. But that narrow lead was in danger in the bottom of the eighth, when Kade Strowd allowed two singles and a walk to begin the frame. He departed for Rico Garcia, a right-hander acquired off waivers this month, and Garcia came through against the heart of Boston’s order.

He faced Jarren Duran, Trevor Story and Masataka Yoshida. He struck out all three. Then he left the mound with a yell and slapped the inside of his glove, stranding all three.

“I just tried to not do too much,” said Garcia, whose father traveled from Hawaii to see him pitch at Fenway Park. “Attack the hitters and just kind of trust my stuff and not try to play around the zone and make them chase and stuff. Just wanted to attack and kind of let them get themselves out.”

From there, the Orioles blew it and then rallied once more. Basallo, off the bench, produced the game-winning RBI in his third game. He already has five RBIs, joining Manny Machado as the only Orioles players with that many RBIs in their first three career games.

There is a special quality to all of this. And even though it will be for naught in 2025, the mind wanders to destinations beyond.

“We’re all trying to prove a spot,” Garcia said. “We’re all grinding, and I love that.