TORONTO – On a given day in 2024, you never knew what you would see from Albert Suárez. 

On May 22 of last year, he tossed two-thirds of an inning against the Cardinals in high-leverage bullpen work. Three days later, he started against the White Sox, tossing four scoreless. 

It was the same story later that season. To kick off August, the right-hander came out of the bullpen for an inning and two-thirds only to follow it up with five shutout innings with six strikeouts against the Toronto Blue Jays. 

That’s exactly what the O’s are hoping for out of Suárez this afternoon, who starts in Toronto after appearing in the 10th inning in his last outing. 

“If you get him up to five, I think you’re probably doing a pretty good job right there,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said of Suárez’s upcoming outing. “I think he got up to five in one of his rehab starts. That’s a while ago. He hasn’t built up that high. I think here with us, probably, three innings is what he’s got. Albert has a tendency to be efficient at times and he can get some outs quick. If all goes well and he gets to the fifth, that would be great. If something went crazy and somehow he got into the sixth, it would be incredible.” 

The right-hander is certainly capable of a lengthy outing, even without having the buildup. His versatility is a huge piece of what makes Suárez so valuable in Baltimore. 

“It’s a Swiss Army knife in a lot of ways,” Mansolino said. “I think because of the situation we’re in today, needing him to start, we had to kind of hold him back. I think another way you would have seen him, we probably would have seen a possible three-inning save yesterday given that we didn’t have to use him today. So we have a lot of trust in Albert. We’re obviously willing to start him here in a big game, we’re willing to close him out in a big game. Not a lot of people have the skill set to kind of bounce back and forth and do both.” 

Last season, the righty appeared in 32 games. In 24 as a starter, he posted an impressive 3.76 ERA. And as a reliever, that number was down at 3.09. That’s value no matter the role, making him the perfect chess piece.

“We’re real day-to-day right now,” Mansolino said of his pitching staff. “Just trying to keep Dean (Kremer) off the IL and skip a start and fill innings and try to win games here every night and compete.”

Luckily for the Orioles, though, they seem to have avoided any major injury concern with Trevor Rogers and Tomoyuki Sugano, both of whom had scares this weekend. 

Rogers was forced to exit Friday’s contest after five innings of work, and Sugano was drilled in the left leg by a Vladimir Guerrero comebacker. Both should be available for their next starts, according to Mansolino. 

“Trev’s going to be fine, definitely going to be fine,” he said. “Tomo’s going to be fine. Tomo got hit hard last night. It was a very tough and gritty outing by Tomo yesterday in a lot of ways. It was tough and gritty for Trev, too, to work through what he did and give us five.”

In a season full of injuries, Baltimore is hoping to avoid more stints on the injured list for their pitching staff. Suárez’s start goes a long way in helping Kremer accomplish that goal. 

“Big Al” is ready to answer the call for any situation. Today, he and the Orioles are looking to avoid a sweep. 

Breadcrumbs from the skipper 

Mansolino did have some positive updates on Adley Rutschman and Jordan Westburg, too. 

“Yeah, he’s hit,” Mansolino said of Rutschman. “I think, probably, once we get out of here, I think likely he goes on a rehab assignment here next week. I think things are trending in that direction. 

I think things seem to be going well with Jordan Westburg here on his rehab assignment, I think there’s a lot of positive signs right there, and, you know, hopefully today goes well. And if today goes well, hopefully we see him soon.”