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SAN DIEGO – Tyler Wells waited 508 days to pitch in a major league game. He could handle another 18 minutes.
Padres starter Yu Darvish threw 30 pitches in the top of the first inning, surrendered a home run to Jeremiah Jackson, hit two batters and issued a walk. The three strikeouts extended his stay on the mound while Wells paced in the dugout.
Finally able to pick up the baseball, Wells gave the Orioles five innings with two runs allowed and had teammates waiting to slap hands and hug him after his final batter in a 6-2 victory over the Padres before an announced sellout crowd of 42,536 at Petco Park.
Jackson has homered in back-to-back games and three of the last four. Emmanuel Rivera delivered two-out, two-run singles in the third and fifth innings to tie his career high in RBIs.
The Orioles claimed the series after dropping three in a row, improved their record to 63-76 and made certain that they wouldn’t lose 100 games.
Wells hadn’t gotten into a game except on his rehab assignment since April 12, 2024, two months before his second reconstructive elbow surgery. The Orioles reinstated him today from the 60-day injured list, with family and a group of friends cheering him.
The Padres collected five hits but no walks against Wells, who struck out four batters. He threw 65 of his 85 pitches for strikes and earned his first win since July 8, 2023 in Minnesota.
“Actually, it’s surprising as to how calm I was," Wells said. "I definitely thought I was going to have much more of an adrenaline rush, but I think that helped contribute to the success tonight with just being calm, cool and collected. But the first inning definitely, it was, that felt like an eternity.”
Wins aren't deemed important to pitchers anymore but Wells appreciated the one that took so long to achieve.
“It’s definitely something that I’m not going to take for granted," he said.
Wells marked his return by striking out leadoff hitter Fernando Tatis Jr. on three pitches. He needed 11 to dispose of Manny Machado on a ground ball. Fifteen strikes were mixed into the 19 thrown that inning.
The second inning cost Wells 14 pitches because the defense misplayed two balls.
Catcher Samuel Basallo lost Ramón Laureano’s foul popup near the plate and first baseman Coby Mayo couldn’t get to it. The former Oriole celebrated new life by grounding a single into left field. Left fielder Dylan Beavers overran a fly ball that fell in foul territory near the seats.
The inning also included two more strikeouts, on a changeup and cutter, and Wells’ fastball touched 94 mph on Jake Cronenworth’s grounder to short.
Freddy Fermin doubled in the third on a ball that bounced off Beavers’ glove as he ran it down on the track, and Luis Arraez homered into the right field seats with two outs to reduce the lead to 3-2.
Beavers moved to right field and made a diving catch to end the game.
Laureano’s one-out single and stolen base in the fourth didn’t hurt Wells, whose fastball topped at 94.3 mph on his 67th pitch of the night.
"I was happy with the stuff, I was happy with the command," Wells said. "I was happy with the way that I competed. I think that it was a lot of fun. I told Laureano before the game, I was like, 'We're gonna have some fun tonight.' And yeah, he sure had fun tonight. But yeah, I think it was a lot of fun just being able to go out there and compete, especially with them being a playoff-caliber team. I think that's just kind of the icing on the cake."
"He looked good," said interim manager Tony Mansolino. "He kind of looked like himself in a lot of ways. The five pitches, the cutter, slider, curve, changeup, four-seamer. Throwing them, really, wherever he wanted, the command was pretty much the same, which is kind of his calling card, but also, I think you also have to appreciate it a little bit considering coming off the extensive layoff and the Tommy John surgery. So I’m really happy for Tyler. He looked great."
Fermin doubled again in the fifth and Wells got the last two outs. He walked back to the same dugout that he paced and experienced what he called a "glory-to-God moment."
"Because you kind of sit there and you start to kind of play the whole journey back in your head over and over on kind of everything that took place over this last, I think I saw someone say 508 days, which is crazy how fast time flies," he said. "But yeah, you just kind of replay it in your head and just kind of, like, take a deep breath and getting all the hugs from the guys and just all the welcome backs. It was really special."
Arraez flied out to end the fifth. Mansolino didn't consider changing pitchers.
“We’re trusting our guy,” Mansolino said. “It’s ‘T,’ he’s doing great, he’s throwing the ball good. A little bit of a mishap tonight and then a homer, and just because a guy makes one pitch that one of the great hitters in the league gets him on, we’re not going to shy away from him the next time.”
Wells is the 67th player used by the Orioles, five more than their previous record and three short of the major league mark set by the Marlins last year. He embraced his father outside the clubhouse after completing his postgame interview and looked forward to snuggling 5-month-old daughter Ava Faye, who watched with her mom, Melissa.
"It's something that you can't really put into words," Wells said, his eyes moist. "It's one of those things where she'll never remember it. She's probably too young. But at the end of the day, I think it's probably the most special thing in my heart to be able to go out there and just show her that chasing dreams is kind of like, you know, I'm 31 years old now and I'm still chasing it and I'm still enjoying every second of it. I just hope that being the first man in her life, I hope that she sees that and can come back to this one day and just kind of see the adversity that we had between me and my wife and the whole journey of her and the pregnancy and her being born. I just hope that she can look back and really cherish that."
Mansolino needed the bullpen to cover the last four innings. Shawn Dubin stranded a runner in the sixth. Kade Strowd walked the bases loaded with one out in the seventh, and come-to-the-rescue Rico Garcia struck out Arraez and got Machado to bounce into a force.
Albert Suárez made his first appearance since March 28 and retired the side in order in the eighth. Mansolino stuck with him in the ninth and Suárez worked around a leadoff walk.
"It feels great," he said. "To be able to help the team, and to be healthy and ready, feeling normal, that’s the best feeling ever.
"I was ready in the bullpen. We talked about it before, that I might be coming early in the game or late in the game. So I was just ready to go in any time, to any situation."
Laureano tried to scale the left field fence to bring back Jackson’s home run ball, a player that Mansolino calls “quirky” almost flipping into the seats. Darvish struck out three batters in the first but also battled control issues.
Jackson had another RBI in the eighth inning on a fielder’s choice grounder.
The Orioles didn’t score in the second after Mayo’s one-out double, but Ryan Mountcastle and Colton Cowser singled in the third, Cowser stole second base with two outs and Rivera singled into left field on the ninth pitch of the at-bat.
Darvish exited after throwing 87 pitches in four-plus innings. The Orioles loaded the bases with one out in the fifth, Wandy Peralta struck out Basallo, and Rivera came through again after David Morgan entered the game and pushed the lead to 5-2.
The four RBIs matched Rivera’s career-high output on Sept. 28, 2024 in Minnesota.
“I feel super good," he said. "We all feel really happy when you win a game like that, so just really happy overall.”
* Levi Wells allowed two runs in five innings, walked none and struck out six in his second start with Triple-A Norfolk. Houston Roth retired all six batters, striking out four, and Chayce McDermott tossed a perfect inning.
Double-A Chesapeake’s Blake Money allowed one run and two hits in five innings. Thomas Sosa went 2-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs in his first Double-A game. Infielder Griff O’Ferrall went 2-for-3 with a double and walk in his first Baysox game.
High-A Aberdeen’s Wellington Aracena allowed one earned run and two total in six innings.
Class A Delmarva leadoff hitter Wehiwa Aloy came within a home run of the cycle. Twine Palmer allowed seven earned runs (eight total) and 10 hits in four innings.
