As if to illustrate how many pivotal moments existed in yesterday’s loss, Orioles manager Craig Albernaz strayed from how his team failed to score with the bases loaded and none out in the 10th inning, after Pete Alonso was doubled off first base, to mention the importance of center fielder Colton Cowser’s fielding error back in the second.

“But yeah,” he said, returning to the original point, “with the bases loaded right there, that line drive double play hurt a lot.”

So did Shane Baz trying to grind through a start without his best command and a few defensive breakdowns behind him. And not having Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo because of injuries that have removed perhaps the best catching duo in baseball, with Chadwick Tromp and Sam Huff a combined 1-for-24 as their replacements.

Huff grounded out with the bases loaded and two outs in the 11th inning after striking out 11 times in his previous 13 at-bats. The Braves ordered an intentional walk with Huff on deck that put the winning run on second base.

“Speaking as a former catcher, and I know Alby knows this as well, it’s really tough for a guy to come in,” said bullpen coach Hank Conger. “I know Trompy had some familiarity before in the past, but anytime you come in in the middle of the season, you’re trying to learn a whole new staff, a whole new bullpen. It’s tough.

“Especially when look at the starting rotation of how well they’ve been doing, how well they’ve been rolling, it’s a matter of just trying to find that same page of, ‘Hey, what have you been doing to have the success, and what can I do as a catcher to kind of continue this to not like really disrupt the ebbs and flows of what I’m doing preparation wise?’ So it’s really difficult.”

Not nearly as hard as trying to compensate for the lost offense.  

The game stayed close, resulting in another one-run outcome, because the bullpen didn’t allow an earned run in 6 2/3 innings. The automatic runner scored against Andrew Kittredge in the 11th, but he got out of a bases-loaded jam. The Braves managed only two hits after Baz came out.

The trade speculation with the deadline approaching keeps circling back to the ‘pen, with at least one move anticipated if the club maintains its buyer mindset. The deficit for the last Wild Card remained 2 ½ games as the Orioles arrived in Detroit.

Closer Ryan Helsley and left-hander Keegan Akin are on the injured list. Akin won’t return after undergoing elbow-reconstructive surgery. Former All-Star closer Félix Bautista might return later this summer after his shoulder procedure last August.

Twenty-one pitchers on the team have made relief appearances this season, including Chris Bassitt twice in bulk, and that doesn’t include former utility player Weston Wilson. Roles are undefined or subject to change. But the results keep impressing.

The bullpen had posted a 2.73 ERA since June 16 heading into yesterday’s game, third best in the majors after the Yankees (2.35) and Astros (2.65).  Five relievers combined for the 6 2/3 scoreless innings, including Josh Walker’s 1 2/3 and Tyler Wells’ shutdown 10th.

Improvements in pitching have enabled the Orioles to hang around the Wild Card chase rather than get bumped to the curb, but the rotation gets most of the credit with a 3.50 ERA since May 24 that ranked fourth in the majors before yesterday.  

Don’t overlook the relief crew, which lowered its season mark to 4.01 and opponent average to .237.

“They’ve been doing an awesome job all year,” Conger said. “When you look at especially service time, a lot of inexperience, a lot of guys have really stepped up over the course of the year.”

Helsley continues to lead the club with eight saves and he’s gone on the IL twice, with the Orioles moving him to the 60-day while he recovers again from right elbow inflammation. Rico Garcia is next with four, the most recent on June 2 in Boston. Kittredge, Wells and Anthony Nunez have three. Yennier Cano, Grant Wolfram, Albert Suárez and Cam Sanders each have one.

Nunez’s last save was May 22. Sanders stuck around long enough to earn his first major league win and save on back-to-back days before returning to Triple-A. Suárez has bounced in and out of the organization and made his first appearance yesterday since July 8.

The Orioles hope for a scenario where Helsley and Bautista provide a thunderous one-two punch at the back end. In the meantime, closing time is wide open.

“I think you definitely have to have a certain mindset,” Conger said. “I know you get a little bit of anxiety when the eighth and ninth inning rolls around, but I think that’s just really a testament to a lot of our guys and the mindsets and where they’re at as far as just like understanding, ‘I’m coming in, I’m doing my job.’ It doesn’t matter if the seventh, eighth inning.

“Obviously as a team we have to get kind of creative with certain matchups and certain pockets for certain guys, but they’ve all stepped up, and the mindset’s just been like, ‘Give me the ball, let me do my job,’ and they’ve been doing a great job at it this year.”

Cano earned the win Saturday after retiring the side in order in the ninth, and he’s allowed one run this month in 7 2/3 innings after posting a 2.45 ERA in 11 June games. His season ERA is 2.34 in 46 appearances.

“He’s been awesome,” Conger said. “Obviously, I wasn’t here last year, but the couple adjustments that have been made in the second half of last year, and for him to really put in the work and kind of roll that over into this year, and just to see that, it’s awesome seeing him, because the preparation and everything is just so consistent every day. He shows up, he does his work. It doesn’t matter whether it’s early in the game, late in the game, he’s coming in. So the consistency in seeing that and the mindset, it’s just been really, really seeing progress along as a player.”

Suárez kept the Braves from scoring yesterday and didn’t allow a hit in the eighth and ninth innings.

“I know he hasn’t thrown in a while, but you look at it and just, I think it’s just a testament of the type of person he is, the type of players he is, for him to kind of continue to come back to us and now he’s kind of settled in,” Conger said yesterday before Suárez came out of hiding.

“If you look at earlier in the season with the way that things were happening, he really numerous times has saved the bullpen just by being able to eat up innings, to be able to kind of recover well and kind of bounce back. So without him, yeah, it’s huge. He shows up with a smile on his face every day. I know you guys see it in the clubhouse, and he’s an awesome human being. He’s covered us in some tough spots this year and it’s been huge.”

“He’s the unsung hero of our team, what he can do and come in in spots like that,” Albernaz said. “I think he had like 16 or 17 days in between appearances, and to keep us close, it was great.”

Garcia was one of the top relievers in baseball and certainly among its most surprising success stories with 11 scoreless appearances and 20 out of 21 to begin the season. His ERA grew to 3.00 after surrendering home runs in his last three outings, including game-tying shots in the eighth inning in the first two games of the Braves series.

Conger doesn’t see anything noticeably different about Garcia beyond the results.

“I mean, for him it’s just obviously the past couple of games haven’t gone the way he’s wanted, but for us, he’s been probably a huge reason as far as where the bullpen’s at and how we’ve handled a lot of different situations,” Conger said.

“So it’s the bullpen, it’s the ebbs and flows. You understand the volatility of when you don’t give up a run for the first month, you’re a hero, and then you give up one in like the eighth or ninth. So it’s just, it goes up and down, but watching him and his confidence every single day, he’s gonna be fine and he’s gonna be a big reason why we’re gonna end up where we are at the end of the year.”

Like everyone else on the club, Conger expects the finish line to stretch across the playoffs.

“You look at it over the season, I know it’s really been a theme of kind of up and down, up and down, but I think having that (seven-game) streak where we played really good baseball, I think that just gives a lot of confidence for our players of like, OK, we’re capable of doing this,” Conger said.

“We understand that you look at the next couple series now, every team we’re gonna play, with the way that the AL has been set up, it’s gonna be a playoff race throughout the whole year. So every series counts for us. But you know, you look at it, I think that confidence rolling that in is gonna be huge, and I think the guys are ready for it.”