CLEVELAND – The drill repeats like stuffed cabbage.

The Orioles are no-hit into the late innings and the media is forced to begin searching the internet for perspective. Former Mariners pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma gets his yearly mention as the last pitcher to make history against them.

The close calls made a new friend last night. Guardians left-hander Parker Messick carried the bid into the top of the ninth inning at Progressive Field. One pitch later, it was gone.

Leody Taveras’ hard-hit ground ball got past diving second baseman Juan Brito. Taveras chucked the bat halfway up the line and clapped his hands as he reached first base.

“I’m one of those people, I believe if something’s going to happen, it’s going to happen,” he said at his locker. “I believe that everything is right now. Today wasn’t the day for a no-hitter.

Sure looked like it.

The Rays’ Drew Rasmussen lost his perfect game in August 2022 at Tropicana Field when Jorge Mateo led off the ninth with a double, but let’s narrow it down to the last three seasons.

The Tigers used four pitchers in their attempt at a no-hitter on Sept. 13, 2024 in Detroit. Gunnar Henderson tripled with two outs in the ninth. The Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto no-hit the Orioles for 8 2/3 innings on Sept. 6, 2025 at Camden Yards before Jackson Holliday homered, and the hosts rallied for an improbable victory.

Add Messick, and the Orioles became the third team in the expansion era to break up a no-hit bid in the ninth inning or later in three or more consecutive seasons, according to Elias Sports. It also was done by the Phillies from 1987-90, yes, four times, and the Twins in 1980-82.

There’s more to unpack from last night, which resulted in the Orioles’ third loss in a row to knock them below .500 again.

*Center fielder Steven Kwan made a nice play on Taylor Ward’s 395-foot fly ball to the center field fence to end the third inning. It didn’t seem that important at the time except for the brief moment when it appeared that Ward might have hit his first Orioles home run.

“I thought I got it pretty good,” he said, “but it’s just baseball.”

*The Orioles finally are facing left-handed starters. They did a number on Arizona’s Eduardo Rodríguez, finishing with four runs, six hits and four walks over five innings after his previous dominance, but Messick was a menace.

The right-handed lineups aren’t as imposing as the left-handed lineups – not a hot take – but this also is a team that’s got 13 players on the injured list and misses switch-hitter Adley Rutschman and right-handed hitters Tyler O’Neill, Jordan Westburg and Ryan Mountcastle, among others.

“Those guys are huge pieces for us. But also, the guys we had in the lineup we feel very confident in them versus left,” said manager Craig Albernaz.

“We’ve shown that we can have good at-bats, we just couldn’t square the ball up tonight against Messick.”

“It could be different for individual guys, but I love lefties,” Ward said. “I’ll face a lefty every day. I’m grateful to have the two lefties back-to-back. I embrace it and I love it.

“You try not to think about it that way. It’s kind of like even lefty relievers, for me personally, I don’t really see them very often. And when I do see them, it seems like it’s been a while. But yeah, just kind of probably depends on who you talk to.”

It should be pointed out that O’Neill is on the trip. He’s also on concussion protocol, but the Orioles let him fly to Cleveland. He’s eligible to return. Keep an eye on it.

*One of the game’s key decisions came in the ninth. The Orioles loaded the bases with no outs, and Gunnar Henderson’s long fly ball to right destroyed the shutout bid. It also had some beat writers thinking about their rewrites, because it looked like a slam off the bat. J

But I digress …

Pete Alonso doubled off the right field wall, another ball that had some home run potential, to score Blaze Alexander. Johnathan Rodríguez, the cleanup hitter in this weird world of ours, was due up, but Albernaz called on Colton Cowser over Dylan Beavers. Cowser fell behind 0-2, worked the count to 2-2 and flied out at 101.8 mph. And the ball wasn’t deep enough to further cut into the Guardians’ lead.

Beavers is batting .233/306/.326 in 14 games. He isn’t on fire. Cowser is hitting .211 with a .548 OPS.

So, why Cowser instead of Beavers.

Well, the rookie is battling an illness, but he was available. He just wasn’t the first choice.

“Cowser has seen Cade (Smith) before,” Albernaz said. “He’s pinch-hit before. Also, Beaves being under the weather the past few days kind of put a wrinkle into that. But we still have Beavers ready to get down. But we felt great with Cowser up there.

“He had a great at-bat, great swing on it. He just missed it, hit it straight up in the air.” 

*Shane Baz has gone at least five innings with four or more strikeouts in his first four starts, the first Orioles pitcher to do it since Andrew Cashner (five times) in 2018.

Baz had a stretch of nine batters in a row retired last night, but he already surrendered a two-run homer to José Ramírez and would be charged with four runs in six innings.

What was happening with Messick didn’t distract or consume Baz. The right-hander had his own work to do.

“Especially after that first inning, I was more just focused on what I was gonna do with the next few batters when I’m in the dugout,” he said. “But yeah, you know, it definitely puts pressure on the team a little bit, but I felt like it didn’t really affect me.”

*Four starts in, Baz has a 4.91 ERA. How does he assess his season?

“It’s over,” he said. “I’m not even thinking about it.”

This seems like a good place to stop.