Rico Garcia understands the life of a late-inning, high-leverage reliever, even if he’s fairly new to it.

A starter can make one bad pitch, have one hiccup in an outing, and still provide quality and guide his team to a win. Garcia can make one mistake and be responsible for a loss.

Garcia is putting together a season worthy of All-Star consideration, but he’s surrendered homers in back-to-back appearances and raised his ERA to 1.29 in 28 innings.

That’s how you know that Garcia is performing on another level. A 1.29 ERA constitutes a slump.

The first run scored against Garcia occurred in his 12th game and the second in his 22nd. He was charged with a run on May 19 to bump his ERA from 0.45 to 0.89, had six scoreless appearances in a row, and stumbled Sunday in Toronto and in the 10th inning Tuesday night with an automatic runner on second base.

Brandon Valenzuela extended the Blue Jays’ lead to 6-4 in the eighth inning. Randy Arozarena put the Mariners ahead 6-4 by reaching for a slider that missed outside by a substantial margin and driving it 360 feet to the opposite field.

Right-handers are 2-for-40 against Garcia this season after Arozarena’s tie-breaking shot.

“Definitely that one in Toronto I think was a bad location,” he said. “Kind of got away from me. And then (Tuesday) night’s one, I don’t know how he hit that. I’ve just got to kind of tip the cap. But obviously don’t want to give up home runs. But it’s just one of those things where you’ve just got to flush the day before and just keep working on what I need to, I guess, to get back to what I was doing.

“Just taking it day-by-day.”

Just the way a reliever must do it in any role, but especially with the game on the line.

“It’s just one of those things where one mistake can cost the team a win, so I kind of strive to have that perfection just to put our team in that best chance to win,” he said. “The past few games haven’t gone that way, but we’re gonna continue to just keep working at it every day.”

Fortunately for the Orioles, Garcia says he feels as good as he did in spring training and after breaking camp with the team and setting a franchise record with no hits allowed in his first 11 appearances. His .099 opponent average leads the majors in a minimum 80 at-bats.

“It’s just one of those things where I wish I could have it back, but at the same time, I can’t do anything about it now. You can just look forward to the next game and continue to work,” he said.

“At the end of the day, I give up the home runs and it sucks and I take it hard whenever I do give up runs, so it’s just one of those things where I just need to be able to flush it and continue to move forward.”

*Last night’s lineup had Blaze Alexander at third base and Coby Mayo in reserve status. Alexander contributed a run-scoring double in a 7-2 win.

One of manager Craig Albernaz’s balancing acts involves Alexander and Mayo, two right-handed hitters who can play third. They can co-exist on many nights with Alexander also able to move to second base, shortstop and the outfield.

Mayo homered in the ninth inning Tuesday night to ignite a game-tying rally. Alexander went 2-for-3 with an RBI Monday night and going 3-for-7 with two doubles and a homer in the last two games in Toronto, and after slashing .365/.403/.508 in May.

“Blaze’s super power is his ability to play all over the field and be that versatile piece for us,” Albernaz said. “And Coby has shown as of late the ability, one, to play third base, and also to be an impact bat. So yeah, it’s a nice problem to have, but also, with Blaze and his ability to play all over, there is like a workload component to that. And also, being cognizant of using him in the right spots, and the right matchups, as well.

“So that’s something we’ve been balancing as of late and pretty much all year.”

Albernaz admits that his knowledge of Alexander when the Orioles made the February trade with the Diamondbacks “wasn’t the highest.”

“I had to do a lot of digging myself,” he said.

“He has all the ingredients, right? The athleticism, the bat speed. The biggest thing was the swing-and-miss, just like any young player has and any player has. He’s done a great job of making adjustments in his setup and really manage the at-bat and the at-bat quality, and that’s something that has really come on strong. He’s had a lot of great at-bats as far as fouling pitches off, long, extended at-bats, which, to start the year, I don’t think he’s not capable of that, but it just wasn’t what he was showing. And then, as of late is what we’ve been seeing, which is being able to fight off some tough pitches and get some really good pitches to hit.

“What’s the impressive thing about Blaze is, the batted ball trajectory, the ball off his bat is like one of the highest on the line drive side, which is awesome. He’s not trying to hit the ball high in the air or on the ground all the time. He’s squaring up the ball and hitting line drives all over the field. So that’s the biggest encouraging thing that Blaze has been doing.”

*The Orioles are 9-1 in games started by Brandon Young this season.

To find the last time that the Orioles won nine of 10 games started by a pitcher to begin a season, you’ve got to go back to the 2008 season.

You’ve got to reference Daniel Cabrera.

Cabrera finished 8-10 with a 5.25 ERA and 1.606 WHIP in 30 starts in his final season in Baltimore. The Orioles were 6-14 in his last 20 starts.

*Sam Huff has caught the first three games of the series, but Albernaz was encouraged yesterday by Adley Rutschman’s workout. Rutschman hasn’t played since Sunday due to left hamstring tightness.

“We’ll see how he feels after he sleeps tonight and wakes up tomorrow,” Albernaz said.

Huff went 1-for-4 last night but got his props for working with Young.

“Kudos to Huffy tonight to come up and catch three games in a row, call a great game,” Young said. “Kudos to him. Really glad to have him.”

“Huffy does a great job of calling games,” said Jackson Holliday, “and I’m excited for you guys to see him absolutely smash a ball, because it goes really, really far.”