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PHILADELPHIA – Games over the next two months that can’t get the Orioles back into a playoff chase have the power to elevate a young pitcher in the eyes of his bosses. For as long as he’s allowed to stay on the mound.
Left-hander Cade Povich returned from the injured list today to make his first appearance in almost two months, and he came within an infield hit of his third quality start of the season and first since April 24.
Interim manager Tony Mansolino removed Povich after 5 2/3 innings, choosing to let Corbin Martin face Nick Castellanos with the score tied. The matchup mattered more than determining whether Povich could work out of his own jam.
Martin saw six batters and retired none. Harrison Bader hit a three-run homer, Kyle Schwarber greeted Yaramil Hiraldo with a grand slam and the eight-run inning propelled the Phillies to a 13-3 victory before an announced crowd of 41,099 at Citizens Bank Park.
Elvin Rodríguez worked the eighth, becoming the 56th player used by the Orioles, and Edmundo Sosa and Weston Wilson hit back-to-back home runs. When a game unravels for this team, it leaves a huge mess.
The Orioles are 51-62 overall and 1-3 on the road trip that began the post-deadline phase of their lives.
Castellanos singled off Martin and Bader drove a fastball into the left field seats. The next three batters singled, with Wilson scoring pinch-runner Bryson Stott. Trea Turner walked, Hiraldo replaced Martin and Schwarber homered for the second time tonight.
The place got louder.
Povich surrendered two home runs to offset the two hit by the Orioles within the first three innings, but he retired nine of his last 11 batters. J.T. Realmuto reached on an infield single with two outs in the sixth, a play so close that the Orioles challenged the call, and Povich was finished after 90 pitches.
"I felt good physically," he said after being charged with four runs and four hits and striking out seven. "I felt like the stuff I’ve been doing to kind of get back on track and feel good again has gone really well. And yeah, I felt really good overall today.”
Mansolino knows that the club has a chance to evaluate players, but he’s also trying to win. Maybe he rolls the dice with Povich if the lefty isn’t fresh off the IL. Maybe it doesn't matter.
No doubt, Povich wanted to face Castellanos.
“Yeah, of course," he said. "Always wanted to stay out there as long as I can. The mentality I’ve always had is, I want to throw until the manager takes the ball out of my hands. And that was the case. Obviously, knowing a lot of the situation, first game off the IL, I wanted to stay out there, but Manso makes the decision. We were able to have a conversation about it before the inning. He let me go back out there. Obviously, close play on what could have been last out. Just the way it went.”
"I think in that situation, the max he threw in his rehab was 85 (pitches)," Mansolino said. "Eighty-five in the Triple-A environment in a rehab is very different than 90 here in Citizens Bank Park against a World Series-caliber team. We extended him. We weren’t super comfortable throwing him back out there in the sixth inning, to be honest with you, but he wanted the ball. He wanted to go back out in the sixth.
"We gave him those two lefties, we gave him the righty. You get through Realmuto, who hasn’t handled lefties very well this year at all, and then you get to a guy like Castellanos, who’s killing lefties. So you’re sitting here thinking, obviously, just pitch count-wise and where he’s at. You get to the scenario right there with Castellanos, who’s hammering lefties, and (Povich) is already kind of maxed out, that’s actually the right spot right there without a doubt for whoever we bring in. Martin is going to have to be one of those guys we bring in that spot - two outs, runner on first. We expect to get through that thing right there."
Martin allowed one run in his first 8 1/3 innings with the Orioles. The six runs tonight raised his ERA from 1.08 to 7.56.
"Big leagues are hard," Mansolino said. "This is a really hard level to pitch at. Pitching here against this lineup’s really hard. Guys are going to have their ups and downs, and today definitely wasn’t his best."
Left-hander Grant Wolfram was warming, but he sat down and Mansolino signaled for Martin.
"Once that thing dropped to four runs, you can not chase four runs against the Phillies knowing that we’ve got to play again tomorrow and you’re going to have to go through the two lefties right there," Mansolino said. "And (Dietrich) Enns won’t be available tomorrow most likely. And then you don’t just want to have one bullet right there with Keegan (Akin). Keegan just threw back-to-back. So are you going to bring in Keegan with one day off there?
"Once you’re chasing four runs in the big leagues, especially in Philadelphia against that bullpen and this team, you don’t chase it."
Tyler O’Neill has recovered from the illness that kept him on the bench for two days. His bat met a 97 mph fastball from Jesús Luzardo in the second inning, after Adley Rutschman’s leadoff double, and sent it 417 feet to left field at 106.3 mph to give the Orioles a 2-1 lead.
Bryce Harper homered with two outs in the first, a sweeper also traveling 417 feet, but O’Neill hit his fifth in his last seven starts to give him 300 career RBIs.
The lead grew to 3-1 in the third with Jordan Westburg’s 13th homer of the season, but Schwarber stepped to the plate with two outs in the bottom half and a runner on first base, and he launched a fastball 427 feet into the second deck in right field at 110.9 mph to tie the score.
"Those are two really good hitters, two really good power hitters," Povich said. "I think the one to Schwarber was pretty middle and the one to Harper was a decent slider, just top of the zone. So yeah, obviously I want those back, but I think outside of those, overall most of the pitches were executed pretty well.”
Luzardo retired 11 in a row after Gunnar Henderson’s single in the third inning. He didn’t return for the seventh. He was off the clock.
The Orioles had won 13 of their last 16 games against left-handed starters dating back to June 14, but they lost steam after the early homers and their bullpen imploded.
"When the games get like that, the game changes in the big leagues," Mansolino said. "So those are really bad at-bats when major league hitters are chasing 10 runs in a game. Those aren’t going to be good at-bats. They aren’t for any team, including us. Once a game breaks open like that, you guys see it across the league every night, the game just kind of goes as it goes. But for our hitters, we don’t really want them in that situation right there.
"It’s an unfortunate night to finish the game. Thought we competed well the first five innings. Once Povich came out of the game, he threw the ball incredibly well, but once he came out of the game, we just weren’t able to give our hitters a chance to have competitive at-bats."
