After a bullpen game on Thursday, pitching was not the issue in Friday night's 4-2 loss to the Tigers. 

Brandon Hyde needed starting pitcher Jordan Lyles to eat some innings tonight against the Tigers. In Thursday’s series-deciding victory over the Cardinals, Hyde turned to six relievers to get the job done; Bryan Baker, Keegan Akin, Dillon Tate, Cionel Pérez, Joey Krehbiel and Félix Bautista. 

A long outing from Lyles would give those bullpen arms a much needed rest. The stars were all aligning for that scenario to play out, and for the most part, it did. None of those names appeared in tonight's game. 

"It was great to be able to rest some guys in the back of the 'pen today, coming off a day where we threw a lot of guys for multiple innings," said manager Brandon Hyde. 

In the first, Javier Báez grounded into a double play, approximately the 1,000th double play that the Orioles have turned this year. OK, fine, it was the 41st. That’s still a lot of double plays. Most in the American League, in fact. 

After a canceled 2020 minor league season, surely 2021 would be the year that Rylan Bannon made his major league debut. 

In 2019, Bannon flashed every tool the Orioles had hoped to see when they acquired the infielder from the Dodgers in 2018. At just 23, Bannon thrived in 20 games at Triple-A Norfolk. The Xavier product flaunted a .317/.344/.549 slash line, good for an .893 OPS. Defensively, Bannon was versatile, getting reps at both second and third base throughout the year. 

When the 2021 season rolled around, it didn’t appear that Bannon would have to wait long to get a call to the bigs. Demonstrate the same promise at Triple-A that the 2019 season showed, and the promotion would come sooner rather than later. 

Things didn’t work out that way. 

“It was definitely not exactly how I would’ve drawn it up,” Bannon joked.