Mullins homers twice and Suárez provides another strong start in Orioles' 5-3 win (updated)

BOSTON – Cedric Mullins won’t be moving down the lineup anytime soon against right-handed pitching.

Albert Suárez might not leave the rotation against anyone.

Mullins homered in his first two at-bats tonight to power the Orioles to a 5-3 victory over the Red Sox before an announced crowd of 30,898 at Fenway Park. One came cheaply, the other earned. They both counted.

Suárez allowed one run in six innings, and the Orioles improved to 83-63 with a chance to win the series Wednesday night before flying to Detroit. The Yankees lost and are only a half-game ahead in the division race.

Mullins’ multi-homer game was the fifth of his career and first since June 19, 2021 against the Blue Jays. The previous four happened in his 30/30 season.

He sees it as a detriment to keep chasing that player, but he can do some serious mimicking.

"Just putting quality at-bats together," he said. "I think that’s been the main focus. Focusing getting on base, creating some havoc on the bases and leading to some power, as well.”

Manager Brandon Hyde bumped Mullins to second in the order Monday for only the second time in the center fielder’s career, the latest attempt to ignite a dormant offense. Hyde has used 128 different lineups. He keeps trying. Mullins has 14 hits since Aug. 30, including four homers, and he went 6-for-13 in the White Sox series.

Mullins hit his 16^th homer in the first inning off Kutter Crawford and it was a classic Fenway shot. A fly ball that kept drifting toward the right field corner until Wilyer Abreu ran out of room, landing inside the Pesky Pole at a modest 334 feet, the shortest of Mullins’ career, and registering 97.9 mph off the bat.

Statcast gave it an expected average of .030.

Mullins gave the Orioles a quick 1-0 lead.

Crawford leads the majors with 31 homers surrendered. Mullins got his 17^th in the third inning after Gunnar Henderson’s two-out walk, this time launching a cutter 407 feet to right at 104.8 mph. Legit from the moment it left his bat.

“I’m not surprised with Pesky Pole out there," Mullins said. "Was able to get one to hook around. The second was more flush. But two on the day is pretty good.”

"Cedric for the last couple weeks is taking really good at-bats," Hyde said, "and he was huge for us tonight.”

Suárez held the Red Sox to four hits in six innings and he struck out a career-high eight batters. His 101 pitches are a season high and two short of his career high.

Consecutive two-out doubles by Connor Wong and Triston Casas in the fourth narrowed the lead to 3-1, but Suárez retired the side in order on three ground balls in the fifth and on a strikeout and two fly balls in the sixth. The last seven Red Sox were retired, and Suárez had his fourth quality start in his last six outings to lower his ERA to 3.39.

“Really good changeups, and you need it with that left-handed-hitting lineup," Hyde said. "And a team he faced not that long ago and pitched really well against, you knew they were going to make adjustments. He threw a ton of four-seam fastballs up against them the last time and he did a nice job kind of making some adjustments to keep them off-balance the second time.”

The Red Sox kept chasing, with Suárez generating a career-high 21 whiffs.

“Last time I threw a lot of fastballs. This time I was working more with the breaking ball, and then they were probably trying to get a good fastball. I think that was what was working," he said.

"Breaking ball works because of the fastball and today I was throwing them more and then they kept swinging at it because they were probably hunting the fastball. So I did a good job with the breaking ball today.

"I think because they were aggressive, too. A lot of the hitters are aggressive, they want to swing early. For me, throwing the breaking ball there today was a big help."

Cionel Pérez retired the side in order in the seventh but Jarren Duran led off the eighth with a single. Yennier Cano inherited Duran with one out, walked Tyler O’Neill with two, allowed an RBI double to Masataka Yoshida and balked in another run. Wong struck out looking at a 96.6 mph sinker.

"We like to make it interesting at the end," Hyde said. "Now we’re adding in balks."

Seranthony Domínguez, pitching for the second time since Aug. 30, registered his ninth save with the Orioles.

"We’re going to keep rolling Seranthony out there in the ninth," Hyde said.

The Orioles had a chance to widen their lead in the fifth after Jackson Holliday and James McCann singled, but Crawford retired the next three batters. Mullins grounded back to the mound.

Colton Cowser and Coby Mayo singled with two outs in the sixth, the latter’s third major league hit in 32 at-bats. Abreu made a lunging grab of Holliday’s line drive in right-center.

Henderson singled and Anthony Santander drew an intentional walk in the seventh, and Ryan O’Hearn reached on an infield hit with two outs against left-hander Brennan Bernardino. Right-hander Luis Guerrero faced Adley Rutschman, who ran the count full and lined a two-run single to the opposite field.

It must be tack-on Tuesday.

Rutschman is emerging from his prolonged slump. He had two hits last night.

“That was a beautiful piece of hitting and that’s Adley Rutschman," Hyde said. "It’s been encouraging the last few days of kind of his at-bats. The left field hit for him. He had a big smile on his face. That’s the Adley Rutschman we know.”

The Orioles totaled seven runs and 28 hits in their last five games before tonight. Rutschman’s single was their 10^th hit and it loomed much larger after the Red Sox rallied in the eighth.

“Clean win for us," Mullins said. "I think this was one of those wins we’re looking for. Rutsch with a big hit for us late in the game. Just looking for that momentum swing, and that’s a big start right there.”

Reverting to his small ball tendencies, Mullins drew a one-out walk in the ninth and stole second base against Zack Kelly. Santander walked, but the Orioles didn’t score. This time, it didn't matter.

"I was happy with our offense," Hyde said. "We didn’t push quite enough across, but I thought we were doing a better job of keeping the line moving, taking walks. And those big hits are going to start coming a little bit more often as long as we keep getting baserunners out there."

* Jacob Webb tossed a scoreless inning with Triple-A Norfolk in his third rehab game. He allowed two hits and struck out a batter.

Webb could meet the Orioles in Detroit.

Heston Kjerstad started in left field for Double-A Bowie and went 1-for-3 with an RBI double.

Patrick Reilly tossed four scoreless relief innings with one hit and six strikeouts after replacing Alex Pham, who allowed one run and struck out six in four innings.

Enrique Bradfield Jr. hit his first homer for the Baysox and stole his 12^th base.