The Orioles pulled off their most ludicrous, improbable victory of the year to finish a two-game sweep of the Red Sox at Fenway Park, 4-3, in 11 innings. As for how exactly they won that game, well, your guess is as good as mine.

It’s a game in which the Orioles didn’t get a hit after the fifth inning and still scored the go-ahead run in the 11th. A game in which they escaped bases-loaded jams in three consecutive innings — the last two of which would have won the game for the Red Sox — and were bailed out in the 11th when Boston inexplicably held the potential tying run at third on a surefire sac fly. An O’s bullpen full of untested journeymen had moments of incredible triumph and utter failure and everything in between. The Orioles’ win probability plummeted from 93% to 17% in the span of an inning, then soared back up again.

However it happened — clutch performances, dumb luck, or a glimmer of Orioles Magic — the Birds prevailed for their sixth win in their last seven games, earning a mini-sweep against a Red Sox team that had won seven consecutive home series.

It’s hard to even remember the first few innings of this game, but there was a lot of traffic on the bases early against starters Tomoyuki Sugano and Walker Buehler. It was Sugano who allowed the game’s first run in the third, but it wasn’t entirely his fault. After a Connor Wong leadoff single, Roman Anthony poked a tailor-made double-play grounder to second base. But Jackson Holliday booted the ball, then panicked and tried to shovel it to second instead of throwing to first, and ended up getting nobody out.

Sugano still nearly escaped the jam, retiring the next two hitters as the runners moved up to second and third, but only had himself to blame for what happened next. With Trevor Story at the plate, Sugano — who had already used two disengagements — got distracted by Wong dancing off third base, and stepped off the rubber. He was charged with an automatic balk that plated the run. Whoops. If you can believe it, that was the first balk of Sugano’s entire professional career. He pitched for 12 years and 281 games in Nippon Professional Baseball without ever committing one. The Red Sox had a 1-0 lead.

That unearned run turned out to be Sugano’s only blemish in his five innings of work, in which he struck out three and gave up five hits. Somewhat surprisingly (to me, at least), he didn’t return for the sixth despite a reasonable pitch count of 85.

The Orioles answered back, and then some, in the fifth. Holliday led off with an opposite-field double off the Green Monster, and surprise #2 hitter Luis Vázquez worked his first career walk, Buehler’s fourth of the game. That brought an early end to the night for the veteran starter.

Lefty Justin Wilson provided no relief. He coughed up a Ryan Mountcastle game-tying single followed by a Colton Cowser go-ahead RBI double off the Monster. There we go! Boy, did the struggling Colton need that hit. Sox manager Alex Cora next tried his luck with Greg Weissert. The good news for him is that Weissert struck out the final two batters of the inning. The bad news is that, in between those two whiffs, he uncorked a wild pitch that plated Mountcastle from third, extending the O’s lead to 3-1.

After that nice fifth-inning rally, though, the Orioles’ offense fell silent. They didn’t get another hit for the entire game! And it would be a long time before they’d score another run.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Because first we need to talk about the Orioles’ bullpen, this group of rookies, castoffs, journeymen, and no-names who have had to hold down the fort after the Birds’ trades of several veteran relievers and the Félix Bautista injury. On any given day, you never know which of these guys is going to pitch in a key situation or how they’ll respond to it. And boy, was it a mixed bag tonight. It started out quite well with the grizzled vet of the group, Keegan Akin, who dominated the sixth and seventh innings by retiring all six batters he faced.

Then came the eighth, which was, to put it mildly, a roller coaster. Kade Strowd got the call in the setup role and was a total mess. He coughed up singles to the first two batters and then lost the strike zone entirely, walking Alex Bregman on four pitches (and also throwing a wild pitch). The Sox had the bases loaded, nobody out, and the Fenway Park crowd was rocking. Tony Mansolino had seen enough of Strowd and turned to Rico Garcia, hoping for a miracle.

Folks: he got the miracle. Rico Garcia — a guy whose name I was only vaguely aware of until about a week ago — pulled off the most incredible escape we’ve seen from any O’s pitcher this year. With the bases loaded and nobody out and clinging to a two-run lead, he struck out Jarren Duran on three pitches (all changeups). Then he struck out Story on four pitches (three sliders). And then Masataka Yoshida came up…and Garcia struck him out too, blowing a fastball past him on 2-2. HE STRUCK THEM ALL OUT! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Garcia jumped off the mound with a shout after his sensational Houdini act. As a reminder, this is a guy who is on his fourth stop of the season — starting the year with the Mets, then the Yankees, then back to the Mets before the O’s claimed him — and has pitched for seven teams in five MLB seasons. What a moment for the well-traveled righty.

Unfortunately, not all of the Orioles’ patchwork bullpen arms were so impressive. Mansolino turned to former independent league righty Yaramil Hiraldo in the ninth to attempt his first major league save, and it went haywire almost immediately. Hiraldo walked the leadoff man, then grooved a first-pitch fastball to Nathaniel Lowe, who clobbered it into the Red Sox bullpen for a game-tying, two-run homer. Oof.

Among the many miracles for the Orioles is that Hiraldo didn’t lose the game despite an extremely control-challenged performance. He threw 34 pitches, only 12 strikes. He walked the bases loaded with two outs and seemed to have nothing left in the tank. But he had just enough juice to get Story to ground out, sending the game to extras.

Things only got weirder. After Sox closer Aroldis Chapman dominated the Birds in the top half, striking out the side, a wild Yennier Cano plunked a batter and walked another in the bottom of the inning to load the bases with one out. Again, the Red Sox were on the brink of a walkoff victory.

But good fortune smiled on the Orioles. Abraham Toro smacked a sharp bouncer up the middle that was speared by a drawn-in Holliday. From his backside, he flipped to Gunnar Henderson at second, who fired to first to complete the unlikely inning-ending double play. HOW did the Orioles get out of that? My goodness.

Finally, in the 11th, the O’s snapped their scoreless drought, if not their hitless drought. Dylan Carlson led off with a productive out, a grounder to second that moved the free runner, Jeremiah Jackson, to third. Up came Samuel Basallo, pinch-hitting for catcher Alex Jackson. (Basallo is a pretty good option to have available on the bench, huh?) He didn’t hit the ball hard but chopped a half-swing grounder in front of the plate. Boston’s only play was at first base as Jeremiah steamed home with the go-ahead run. That’ll do, Samuel!

One final stroke of good luck awaited the O’s in the bottom of the 11th, where Corbin Martin aimed to protect the one-run lead. Wong bunted the free runner, Nate Eaton, to third base with one out. Anthony then lofted a fly ball to medium-depth center field that looked to all the world like an easy, game-tying sac fly. Cowser made the catch but then uncorked a terrible, off-line throw to the plate.

Except…Eaton didn’t run! For some reason, he held at third base even though he would’ve beaten the throw by a mile. It should be noted that Boston’s third base coach is Kyle Hudson, a former Oriole, who I can only assume is working undercover for the O’s. Nice work, Kyle. The Sox had blown their best chance to tie the game, and one batter later, Martin retired Alex Bregman on a pop-up, earning the save and ending this unbelievable night of baseball.

While I don’t frequent any Red Sox fan sites, I would imagine that they’re calling this one of the most painful losses of their season. They’re not wrong. If the Orioles lost a game like this (and they have, numerous times), I’d feel the same way. But it sure is nice to be on the other end for once.