Losers of nine of their past 11, the Orioles were hoping to right the ship when they got home Wednesday from a difficult road trip.
They didn't know they'd actually need an ark by the end of Wednesday night.
Surviving three rain delays of two hours and 49 minutes, the Orioles beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-1, in a game that was finally, mercifully called with two outs and one Twin on in the top of the sixth.
The game was delayed 42 minutes before the first pitch, 40 more minutes with one out in the bottom of the second and then again for an hour and 27 minutes with two strikes thrown in the top of the fourth and the Orioles leading 3-1.
If it had ended then - which looked like a distinct possibility - the game would be postponed and started again Thursday afternoon with none of the statistics counting.
But in an early season that has been dismal for the Orioles, they caught a break - or a window of almost playable weather anyway.
Resuming at 10:44 p.m., the Orioles and Twins played for another 38 minutes, long enough for the clubs to get through four and a half innings to make the game official.
Only a couple hundred fans from the announced crowd of 10,566 stuck around for the final at-bat at 11:22 p.m., and less than 50 remained for the official announcement that it had ended.
Brian Bass (1-1) picked up his first win of the season with 2 2/3 innings of relief. Entering in the fourth with an 0-2 count to Matt Tolbert that was set up by starter Mark Hendrickson, Bass completed the strikeout. It, technically, took two pitchers and 41 minutes to strike out Tolbert, who was recalled from the minors Wednesday.
It was that kind of night.
Bass wriggled off the hook in the fifth after loading the bases with no outs. He gave up a fielder's choice grounder to score the lone Twins run, before attempting to pick off Nick Punto at first base.
Punto was caught in a rundown but would have been safe when Bass failed to cover first base. Instead, Carlos Gomez, the runner on third, broke home and was thrown out by a perfect bullet from shortstop Cesar Izturis.
Bass then induced a comebacker to end the threat - and guarantee it would become official.
The Twins put a runner on with two outs in the sixth when umpires again halted play.
And this time it stayed that way.
