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CLEVELAND – For the first seven innings of tonight’s ballgame, the Orioles had the momentum.
The Guards had mustered just two hits and two runs, a pair that scored on a weak single from Kyle Manzardo.
The O's had enough chances to win this game. Ultimately, the Birds' bats didn't come through in a 3-2 loss. Not having their best reliever available late in the contest certainly didn't help matters.
On Monday night, the Orioles and Guardians combined to score six runs in the first inning of play. Last night, there was only one, but it came on a José Ramírez solo shot.
Tonight, the first extra-base hit of the game didn’t come until the top of the third inning, courtesy of Cedric Mullins.
The O’s were in business in that frame, with runners on second and third and nobody out after Mullins’ double pushed Ramón Urías 90 feet from home. With Zach Eflin dealing, it was a golden opportunity for Baltimore to back him up with some run support.
Jacob Stallings hit a weak grounder to third, and Urías was out by a mile at home. Then, before Slade Cecconi threw another pitch, he whipped around to pick off Mullins at second base. There went the runners in scoring position.
Baltimore would be somewhat redeemed in the top of the fourth, though. After a Jordan Westburg double, some good situational baseball brought him home. Gunnar Henderson moved him over, and a Ryan O’Hearn sac fly scored him to make it 1-0 O’s.
Just as they did last night, though, the Guardians responded.
With runners on second and third, one away, and Baltimore’s infield playing in, Manzardo’s 65.2 mph piece of contact found some shallow outfield grass. It scored two runs and put Cleveland on top 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth.
All was quiet in the fifth, but the sixth started with a bang.
On a first-pitch ambush, Jackson Holliday sent his team-leading 14th home run into the right-field seats. He turned on a low-and-in slider, and when it landed, the game was tied at two.
"That brings a smile to my face," Tony Mansolino said of the young second baseman leading the home run pack in Baltimore. "Super proud of him and the journey that he's on this year. It's just the tip of the iceberg right now, this kid's just getting better by the day."
Eflin exited before taking the mound in the freshly-tied game, but it was a more than solid return. The right-hander tossed five innings of two-run baseball, allowing just two hits with five strikeouts and one walk. It was the kind of outing the Orioles needed, both for their ability to win tonight’s ballgame and the looming deadline now eight days away.
"That was probably as good as we've seen him since that White Sox start," Mansolino said after the game. "He exceeded all expectations."
Eflin was just happy to be back.
"Being on the IL is never fun," he said. "Nobody wants to do it. It sucks. You feel like you're separated from the team. But at the same time, I'm just super happy to be back and be out there competing with the guys again."
His sights certainly aren't set on the deadline, though.
"My job is to go out there and compete and give everything I have to the team every fifth day, and that's really the only thing that I'm worried about."
The pitching staff as a whole had had a tough go of things in Cleveland, surrendering 16 total runs in the two losses. The bullpen, forced to enter games early with Tomoyuki Sugano and Brandon Young’s abrupt exits, didn’t cover their innings well.
Tonight, though, after a good start from Eflin, Andrew Kittredge and Yennier Cano took care of business in the sixth and seventh, with 1-2-3 innings apiece.
Tensions grew as the game entered the eighth inning still tied at two. The Orioles went silently, but the Guardians threatened a one-out rally. Bo Naylor took a Colin Selby sinker to the left-center field gap, and Cleveland was in business for the first time since the fourth inning.
The next batter, Steven Kwan, did Steven Kwan things. A single to center brought Naylor home, and the Guards had a 3-2 lead.
Selby is not a reliever typically thrown into a high-leverage spot like that. After the game, the reasoning was made clear.
"In the seventh inning, as Cano was going through that inning, Bautista sent a message that he was going to be unavailable today. So, something didn't feel right. We shut him down, which then put Selby in the game. Otherwise, it would have been Domínguez in the game with the idea of Bautista in the ninth."
With the apparent injury happening mid-game, Mansolino didn't have much information to share about The Mountain. The interim skipper noted that Bautista went through his normal routine today and looked great in pregame work.
"Everything looked normal, definitely not expected," he said.
There should be more tomorrow.
Emmanuel Clase shut the door in the ninth, and just like that, there was the ballgame.
The O's arms, Eflin included in his return to the big leagues, gave Baltimore a chance to win this game. A big missed opportunity for the offense in the third inning will not be looked back upon fondly.
The difficulties of this stretch, and the impending deadline that the clubhouse was working hard to change the outcome of, shouldn't be lost regarding the human beings in the locker room. It's a tough time made more difficult by the outcomes.
The Orioles have lost three in a row in Cleveland.
