Late relief can't support Suárez in Orioles' 2-1 loss that denies series sweep (updated)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Orioles bullpen couldn’t match the starting pitching today. Perhaps the bar was raised too high. Whatever the reason, the differences between the two were striking.

Albert Suárez didn’t allow a run in a career-high 6 2/3 innings, but Cionel Pérez lost a 1-0 lead in rapid fashion. Pinch-hitters José Caballero and Dylan Carlson had a double and single, respectively, to level the score. The sequence lasted three pitches.

Used again in a non-save situation, Craig Kimbrel walked three batters in the eighth – one of them intentionally – the Rays stole four bases, and Curtis Mead lifted a sacrifice fly to hand the Orioles a 2-1 loss before an announced crowd of 16,848 at Tropicana Field.

Brandon Lowe, Christopher Morel and Josh Lowe walked, the last intentionally, before Mead flied to right field and the Orioles failed to complete the sweep. They fell to 70-49 overall, 8-2 against the Rays and 6-1 in St. Petersburg.

They went 5-5 on a road trip that began in Cleveland. And they're back in a first-place tie with the Yankees.

"Good games, bad games," said manager Brandon Hyde. "Today, we scored one run. We had our opportunities to score more. Make it really tough on ourselves to try to win a 1-0 game there, with a few of our guys not available out of the ‘pen today. But we gave ourselves a shot. The games we won, we played really well, and the games we lost, we could have done a lot of better things."

Kimbrel hadn’t surrendered a run in his last three appearances but he had traffic. His last save was July 7 and his last opportunity was July 25. He took the loss the following night against the Padres.

“It’s been a challenge," Kimbrel said of irregular work and role changes. "The challenge has been pretty apparent, throwing the ball over the plate when needed to. Consistency. I would say overall, there’s times my stuff has played and gotten me through some things, but all in all, my consistency has just been really terrible, and when you’re inconsistent, you put guys on base and things happen. That’s what happened today.”

The recent stretch of scoreless outings didn't fully convince Kimbrel that his troubles were behind him.

“I mean, yes and no," he said. "Going through those stretches there’s still times where my consistency is off, you know? Still walking guys, putting guys on. Just the crispness isn’t there. Getting ahead of guys and walking them. That’s something that I shouldn’t be doing out there. That’s something I’ve been running into.”

This is Kimbrel's second reset and it's a lengthy one, much longer than earlier in the earlier one. Getting back on track, he said, is pretty simple.

“Just throw the ball over the plate," he said. "Going out there feeling good and getting guys out."

The Rays executed a double steal that proceeded the sacrifice fly.

“I mean, it’s huge," Kimbrel said. "That puts them in scoring position. They’re at third base where a fly ball scores them, like it did. Yeah, just definitely narrows the margin for error and that’s what it did.”

Asked about Kimbrel, Hyde said, "Well, the leadoff walk doesn’t help. And then, you’ve got to be able to hold runners better than that. He left a ball in the middle part of the plate to Mead. He hadn’t been out there in four days, maybe a little bit rusty. The leadoff walks are going to hurt."

Pérez threw 15 pitches in one-third of an inning last night and has been used six times this month.

"If they pinch-hit, it's two outs with nobody on base and Cionel’s got great stuff," Hyde said. "Made a poor pitch there to start the inning there with a double, and then, a bloop single after that. Cionel is going to continue to pitch in big spots for us."

Suárez, who retired 13 of the last 14 batters, didn't question the decision to remove him. He didn't praise it, either. He just accepted it.

"I don’t control that. I only control what I can do on the mound. For me, just do what is the best to help the team," he said.

"Every time I’m out there I feel like I can keep going. It doesn’t matter. Sometimes, maybe I’m really tired. But in my mind I’m always thinking I can keep going."

Hyde noted how he extended Suárez well beyond the 73 pitches thrown in the previous start.

"There’s two outs in the seventh inning and we felt like we were pushing him, honestly, in that seventh inning," Hyde said. "He got two great outs and gave the ball to Cionel.

"Just a great performance by him. He put up zeros. He’s just such a pro. With the ‘pen kind of the way we were today and going that deep, he gave us a great chance."

Gunnar Henderson doubled off Manuel Rodríguez with one out in the eighth, but Ryan Mountcastle lined to left field at 109.7 mph. Eloy Jiménez walked, Adley Rutschman batted for Austin Slater, who had two hits, and he flied out.

Cedric Mullins singled off Pete Fairbanks with two outs in the ninth, but it amounted to false hope.

* The side of the plate doesn’t matter to Anthony Santander. The opposing pitcher can’t cross him up. The ballpark is unimportant, though a hater of the cold is going to embrace 72-degree Tropicana Field.

Santander is battering baseballs. He did it again today leading off the fourth inning.

Tampa Bay left-hander Jeffrey Springs threw Santander a slider and changeup, followed by four consecutive four-seam fastballs. The last exploded off Santander’s bat for his 35^th home run, which gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead.

Santander hit 13 home runs in June, nine in July and has four this month in 10 games. His season total of 35 ties Ken Singleton in 1979 for most by an Orioles switch-hitter.

Today’s shot to left field at 104.7 mph tied him with Shohei Ohtani and Marcell Ozuna for second in the majors behind Aaron Judge’s 41.

Santander is a career .213/.293/.373 hitter in 113 games in March/April. He posted a .213 average and .715 OPS in his first 28 games this season and a .207 average and .708 OPS in the next 23 before June. He’s a warm-weather guy and jokes about heating up as the temperature rises. Ask him about it and he’ll smile and explain.

This is understandable. Santander is a native of Venezuela who has a home in Miami. But to truly understand why he’s on a tear is to venture behind the scenes.  

“Tony has been kind of notorious for a slower start and then ramping up as he goes. But the work is always outstanding. And the work that goes on outside of the field is what propels him to have that success on the field,” co-hitting coach Ryan Fuller said this morning.

“He watches the pitchers’ last three starts before every single game. He is looking for the one or two pitches that he will only get. So instead of looking at, ‘Man, he throws fastball 50 percent,’ he’s looking at the changeup in a 2-1 count that he throws five percent and he’ll be sitting on that pitch. Just a really, really smart hitter. Takes care of his body extremely well. I think that’s always a part of it, too. He just gets a little bit stronger, a little bit more confident in there, and then when he starts rolling, it’s so fun to watch.

“There’s not anything distinctly different, no major changes. His preparation is elite and when he does that, he gives himself a really good chance to be successful like he has been.”

* The Orioles presented Suárez with another opportunity in the rotation and he’s responded with 11 2/3 scoreless innings in two starts. Tasked with filling Grayson Rodriguez’s spot, Suárez allowed four hits  today with one walk and five strikeouts. His previous high in innings this season was six. His career high was 6 1/3 on June 7, 2016.  

"Today, everything was working really good and I feel really good," he said.

The gap between career highs in innings?

"I mean, I don’t really think about it too much," he said. "I feel like I’m a little bit of a different pitcher right now. The only thing I think about is staying aggressive and attacking the hitters."

Suárez has given the Orioles seven scoreless starts this year, most in the American League. He kept escaping jams early.

Yandy Díaz singled with two outs in the first inning. Josh Lowe led off the second with a double and Ben Rortvedt walked with two outs. Brandon Lowe doubled with one out in the third. None of them reached the plate.

Lowe broke for third base on Díaz’s grounder to shortstop Henderson, who threw to Coby Mayo for the out.

Jonny DeLuca reached on a bunt single with two outs in the fifth inning and stole second base, but Brandon Lowe flied to the left field warning track. Suárez retired the side in order with two strikeouts in the sixth to leave him at 89 pitches and got a grounder and fly ball in the seventh before leaving to a standing ovation from Orioles fans behind the dugout.

The mood changed rapidly. Pérez threw three pitches and the score was tied.

* Mayo started at third base today, his first major league game in his home state, and struck out in both at-bats before Ryan O’Hearn pinch-hit for him in the sixth with two runners on base and popped up. Mayo concluded his first road trip 0-for-15 with 10 strikeouts.

Jiménez singled in the fourth and is 12-for-24 with the Orioles.

* The Orioles are starting Trevor Rogers and Dean Kremer in the two-game series against the Nationals that begins Tuesday night at Camden Yards.