Orioles can't clinch today after 4-3 loss to Tigers (updated)

Players arrived at Camden Yards this morning unsure whether they’d celebrate a playoff berth later in the afternoon. Some wondered where they’d do it. Whether they’d hang around the clubhouse and wait for the result of the Mariners game or board a train to New York. Is there time to cover lockers, furniture and the floor in plastic or just toast the achievement?

They had to beat the Tigers, of course, or it didn’t matter.

The magic number also can make plans disappear.

Albert Suárez matched his season and career highs with three home runs allowed. The Orioles battled back to tie the score in the fifth before Kerry Carpenter burned Súarez again leading off the sixth, and the Tigers held on for a 4-3 victory before an announced sellout crowd of 44,040 that kept pumping electricity through every section of Camden Yards.

Hopes of winning the last regular season home game were short-circuited.

The Orioles lost their fifth consecutive series and fell to 86-70. They went 2-4 against Detroit. They can’t clinch Monday on their off-day but could get closer, putting the champagne on ice at Yankee Stadium.  

They secured the wild card in the Bronx on the final day of the 2016 season, flew to Toronto and suffered the infamous walk-off loss.

The team has a 6 p.m. departure time for New York. The Mariners aren't pertinent anymore, and the Rangers walked them off today. The Tigers and Royals are tied for the second wild card, four games behind the Orioles. The Twins are the first team out and are an influencer in the ever-changing landscape.

Asked about the disappointment in not clinching at home, manager Brandon Hyde said, “I’m just trying to get there. We’d love to do it at home and disappointed we lost the last couple games.”

"We should’ve," Suárez said. "We’re going to. We stay positive."

Jordan Westburg returned from the injured list and tied the game in the fifth with an RBI double into left-center field after Cedric Mullins’ two-run shot off reliever Ty Madden and Gunnar Henderson’s single. Tigers center fielder Parker Meadows made a leaping catch at the fence to rob Colton Cowser of a go-ahead homer.

Carpenter led off the sixth inning with his second home run of the day, and the Orioles kept falling short in the clutch.

Hyde stuck with the right-handed Suárez against Carpenter before using three lefties in a row.

“Yeah, I take it back now," he said. "I was gonna send Suárez through (Matt) Vierling and bring in (Keegan) Akin for (Riley) Greene because he was at a low pitch count. We felt like in the dugout that his stuff was improving over the last couple innings. He snuck one over the fence.”

Suárez retired the first five batters and Spencer Torkelson lined a cutter 356 feet down the left field line. Jace Jung and Trey Sweeney doubled for a 2-0 lead.

Throwing consecutive changeups to Carpenter in the third inning backfired, with the second one landing on the flag court. Suárez struck out the side in the fourth and retired eight batters in a row before Carpenter saw two straight fastballs and put the second one in the right field seats.

“He put a pretty good swing," Suárez said. "He’s aggressive. Every time I tried to get him out, it didn’t work out the way I wanted. It was tough."

Akin replaced Suárez after Vierling walked. Suárez allowed four runs and five hits in five-plus innings, with one walk and six strikeouts. The three homers tied his season and career highs.

The Tigers started left-hander Tyler Holton for the second time in the series, the fourth time that they used an opener against the Orioles in their six games. Holton tossed two scoreless and hitless innings today and struck out four batters, issuing a leadoff walk to Cowser in the second.

The Orioles trotted out a much deeper lineup with Westburg and Ramón Urías reinstated from the injured list. Westburg received a loud ovation in his first at-bat and struck out. Urías also struck out in the third inning but he lined a single into center in the fifth and jogged around the bases on Mullins’ homer.

Westburg said the ovation “meant everything.”

“I’m so thankful just to be able to play baseball again in the regular season, so to hear that from the fans was touching," he said.

"I’m going to be honest, I was a lot more nervous playing my first game at Norfolk than I was today. So that was kind of encouraging to be back on a big league field and feel somewhat at home."

The first hit was delivered by Adley Rutschman with one out in the fourth inning on a sharp ground ball that deflected off Jung’s glove. Jung ran it down in shallow left field, Cowser tried to go first to third, and reliever Ty Madden covered the bag and applied the tag. Ryan O’Hearn struck out.

Rutschman led off the sixth inning with a double and former Orioles minor leaguer Brenan Hanifee walked Heston Kjerstad with one out, but Jung retrieved Urías’ liner off Hanifee’s leg to record the out at first base and Mullins struck out.

Henderson led off the seventh with a walk and reached second base with one out. Will Vest escaped the jam, with Cowser again flying to the center field track.

“It’s just baseball," Cowser said. "You can hit a ball 50 mph off the bat and get a hit or you can hit it whatever I hit it today, and it gets caught. It’s just one of those things. I look at today as kind of a positive. I hit two balls hard and had a walk. That’s a productive day.”

"I thought we took some unfortunate at-bats," Hyde said. "Meadows makes a great play, takes away a home run from Cowser. Ramón smokes that ball off the pitcher, Ramón smokes that ball in the right-center field gap in the ninth. Just didn’t seem like we could catch many breaks today.”

Danny Coulombe made his second appearance since his elbow surgery and struck out the first two batters in the seventh. Jake Rogers walked and Cionel Pérez got a called third strike on Meadows. Pérez stranded his own runner in the eighth.

Perhaps these teams meet again in the playoffs. The Tigers are muscled up for a late push.

“It’s a really good pitching staff (and) we didn’t see (Tarik) Skubal," Hyde said. "They have a great bullpen, they have a bunch of really good arms. They line change, they’re really athletic, they’re young, they’re playing loose. They played really good defense this series, also. Made a bunch of really good plays against us.”

The Orioles first need to clinch, wherever it happens. But how?

"Man, that’s a loaded question," Westburg said. "I mean, I was here the entire time when I was hurt, so I’ve been around the guys, been around the team, kind of know what we’re going through. It’s tough. We have a tough stretch coming up, too. We play two really good teams.

"The Tigers are hot right now. They’re a really good club. We just have to focus on what’s going on in here in this clubhouse. Not thinking about what’s going on outside, what people are saying, what could or couldn’t happen. We’ve just got to stay tight in here and really focus on the chemistry this last stretch and playing good baseball, and we’ll see what happens."

The Orioles hope what happens involves a lot more games in Baltimore.

“Super important," Westburg said. "You saw the turnout today for the fans on a Sunday day game. They love baseball here. They love the Orioles. As a club, we just want to put together a good product for those fans. We want to play good baseball. We want to win ballgames, and yeah, we do want to get back here because I do think there’s a home field advantage aspect when we’re here in Camden.”

* Dean Kremer, Zach Eflin and Corbin Burnes are starting at Yankee Stadium. Burnes would be working on normal rest in Game 1 of the wild card series and Eflin would work on six days.

* The Yankees are starting Clarke Schmidt, Nestor Cortes and Gerrit Cole.

The Orioles' final attendance is 2,281,129, their highest total since drawing 2,281,202 in 2015.