The Orioles acquired Corbin Burnes this offseason to elevate their rotation.
Baltimore’s magical 2023 season came crashing down in the playoffs against the Texas Rangers largely because of its rotation’s struggles, and general manager Mike Elias fortified his starting pitching corps by trading for the bona fide ace. Burnes proved his value again Thursday with a splendid start in the Orioles’ first game against the Rangers since they ended Baltimore’s season.
Albert Suárez was even better Friday.
Suárez bounced back from his recent struggles to look more like the feel-good story he was for much of the first half, tossing six scoreless innings to lead the Orioles to a 2-1 win over the Rangers at Camden Yards. Baltimore’s bullpen was shaky and its bats were mostly quiet, but both did just enough for the club’s third straight win to remain tied with the New York Yankees atop the American League East.
The Orioles (52-30) tallied only four hits, but the biggest of the night was off the bat of Colton Cowser, who clobbered a solo home run off Rangers starter Max Scherzer in the fourth inning. Double-play duo Gunnar Henderson and Jorge Mateo then teamed up on offense for the deciding run in the fifth.
Relievers Yennier Cano, Jacob Webb and Cionel Pérez combined to walk five batters in the seventh and eighth innings, but Webb and Pérez buckled down to record key outs and strand five runners to maintain the lead. Closer Craig Kimbrel then retired the side in order in the ninth for his 18th save — his first when entering with a one-run lead. He entered 0-for-4 in such situations.
“We got lucky a little bit,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “You can’t walk five guys in the seventh and eighth against a team like that with a two-run lead and expect to win. I think we escaped one there.”
Suárez, the definition of a baseball journeyman, emerged earlier this season, seemingly out of nowhere, as a key part of the Orioles’ pitching staff. Two weeks ago, he sported a sparkling 1.61 ERA between the rotation and bullpen, helping fill key holes in both, especially the former which lost three members to season-ending elbow surgery.
But the 34-year-old right-hander struggled mightily in his next two starts, allowing 16 hits and eight runs in 8 2/3 innings. It felt like the pixie dust surrounding Suárez had disappeared, and with Dean Kremer potentially returning to the rotation from the injured list next week, Suárez seemed destined for the bullpen.
Instead, Suárez made his case Friday to remain a starter, surrendering only three hits without a walk — he issued eight free passes across his previous two outings — to shut down the Rangers, who have lost five in a row. His ERA dropped to 2.43, the second lowest among Orioles starters behind Burnes.
It marked the first time he’s completed six innings in an MLB game in 2,918 days. The last time was July 3, 2016, in his rookie season with the San Francisco Giants before he bounced around between professional leagues in Japan, Korea and Mexico and then serendipitously landed with Baltimore.
Hyde said Suárez gave the Orioles “more than we could ask for,” complimenting the life to the crafty veteran’s fastball. Only eight of his 258 fastballs in June prior to Friday were faster than 96 mph, but 11 of his 55 four-seam fastballs were against the Rangers. His hardest pitch of the night was 96.7 mph to get Josh Smith to pop out.
“The fastball had some jump to it tonight,” Hyde said.
In addition to the life on his fastball, Suárez pounded the zone and allowed his defense to do the work — and that it did. Texas (37-45) laced nine batted balls harder than 95 mph, including four that were caught by Orioles outfielders on the warning track. Three would’ve left the yard in other MLB ballparks, including two to left field that would’ve been gone at Camden Yards before the left field wall was drastically moved back.
“Throwing the ball in the strike zone,” Suárez said about what made him successful. “Today I was just trying to pitch to contact. They were aggressive the whole time, and I was be able to get quick outs.”
Suárez and Scherzer, a three-time Cy Young Award winner, traded zeros until Cowser’s 408-foot home run to center field — the Orioles’ 58th long ball in June to tie the franchise record for most in a month with May 1987. The 24-year-old rookie broke out in April as a near-everyday player for Baltimore, but he struggled in May and the start of June as pitchers began to adjust to his aggressive style. However, over his past 11 games, Cowser has regained his form, smacking four homers and posting a 1.053 OPS.
“He’s got a ton of ability, there’s no doubt,” Hyde said. “That was a huge hit for us tonight.”
Mateo then achieved a feat rarely seen on the basepaths thanks to his elite speed, tagging up from first base on a flyout to right field. That smart decision, one only a few players in baseball are fast enough to make, put Mateo in scoring position for Henderson, who roped an RBI single to right field to put the Orioles up 2-0.
“Jorge is just a superb athlete,” Cowser said. “He does things on the baseball field not a lot of people can do.”
Henderson’s RBI was his 58th this season as he continues to put up eye-popping numbers in his sophomore campaign that has him in contention for the AL Most Valuable Player Award. He extended his on-base streak to 35 games when he walked in the third. On the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network broadcast, musician Joan Jett, who served as the guest splasher in the Bird Bath Splash Zone earlier in the game, gushed about Henderson.
“He’s just amazing,” Jett said.
Hyde pulled Suárez at 87 pitches in favor of Cano, the Orioles’ top setup man. But Cano, whose walk rate has more than doubled compared with his All-Star campaign last year, walked the first two batters he faced and gave up a one-out single to load the bases. Hyde then removed the sinkerballer for Jacob Webb, who sandwiched a bases-loaded walk to Leody Taveras between a Jonah Heim strikeout and a Marcus Semien groundout to narrowly escape the threat.
Pérez walked two more in the eighth but didn’t allow a hit to bridge the game to Kimbrel. Orioles pitchers stranded eight runners and held the Rangers to 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
Kimbrel’s save was the 435th of his career, moving him into a tie with Boston Red Sox closer Kenley Jansen for fifth on MLB’s all-time list. The 36-year-old in his first season with Baltimore briefly lost his job in early May during what Hyde called a “funk.” In 17 games since, Kimbrel has been lights out, allowing only one earned run in 16 innings (0.56 ERA) with nearly three times as many strikeouts (23) as hits and walks (eight).
“He’s been magnificent for us,” Hyde said.
The Orioles’ three-game winning streak has immediately followed the club’s worst stretch of losing in more than two years when it dropped five straight. Cowser said the wins the past two days — one an 11-2 thumping, the other a one-run nail-biter — show the Orioles will “do whatever it takes to win.”
“We have great leadership and a really good clubhouse,” Cowser said, “so it doesn’t surprise me the way we responded.”
6.0 — Gunnar Henderson’s WAR
+119 — The Orioles’ run differential
3 — The number of UCL surgeriesHere are three of the 10 numbers that define the Orioles through the first half of the 2024 MLB season https://t.co/amdgE3hE2A
— Jacob Calvin Meyer (@jcalvinmeyer) June 28, 2024
Around the horn
• Adley Rutschman didn’t play Friday after taking a foul tip off his throwing hand Thursday. He remained in Thursday’s game and hit a home run with the bruised hand. “It feels better now than it did when he woke up,” Hyde said before Friday’s game. Infielder Jordan Westburg also received a rare day off.
• Burnes was placed on the paternity list before Friday’s game after he pitched seven innings of one-run ball Thursday. Hyde said Burnes will meet the team in Seattle for its series next week before determining when he will make his next start. It’s possible he could make his start on schedule Wednesday. A player can only be on MLB’s paternity list for three games.
• To fill Burnes’ spot on the active roster, the Orioles recalled left-hander Matt Krook from Triple-A Norfolk. The 29-year-old reliever posted a 3.71 ERA with 31 strikeouts in 26 2/3 innings with the Tides this season. Baltimore acquired Krook from the Yankees in a cash trade this offseason. It’s likely he is returned to Triple-A before Tuesday’s series opener versus the Mariners when Burnes is activated off the paternity list.
• The Orioles announced the signings of MLB veterans Niko Goodrum and Burch Smith to minor league contracts on Friday. Goodrum, a 32-year-old infielder, has played 415 career MLB games with five teams, mostly the Detroit Tigers, and is a career .224 hitter. He’s appeared in 13 games with the Tampa Bay Rays and Los Angeles Angels this season. Smith, a 34-year-old right-handed reliever, has appeared in 127 games for six MLB teams since 2013 with a career 5.79 ERA. He posted a 4.25 ERA in 29 2/3 innings with the Miami Marlins earlier this season.
• Utilityman Nick Maton cleared waivers and accepted his assignment to Norfolk on Thursday. Maton, who played two innings at second base and did not receive an at-bat during his five games with the Orioles, was designated for assignment Monday when the club recalled outfield prospect Heston Kjerstad.
• Max Wagner, who Baseball America ranks as Baltimore’s 14th-best prospect, was placed on Double-A Bowie’s injured list with a lower back injury, the Orioles announced. Wagner, a second-round pick in 2022, was hitting .109 in 19 games with the Baysox.
• A member of the Orioles’ front office is being recognized with a bobblehead next weekend. The Bethesda Big Train, a summer baseball team in the Cal Ripken collegiate league, will hand out bobbleheads of Orioles assistant general manager Eve Rosenbaum on July 5. Rosenbaum, one of the few female assistant GMs in MLB, is a Bethesda native.
