Suárez slays slump with six scoreless innings in Orioles' 2-1 win (updated)

Albert Suárez figured it out.

A two-start slump circled the drain tonight, with Suárez regaining the effectiveness that made him so valuable to a club with a bundle of pitching injuries.

Súarez shut out the Rangers over a season-high six innings, Colton Cowser homered for the second time in two nights and the Orioles claimed a 2-1 victory before an announced crowd of 27,666 at Camden Yards.

Craig Kimbrel recorded his 18^th save and 435^th of his career, and the Orioles won their third game in a row after five consecutive defeats. Their record improved to 52-30.

Owner David Rubenstein danced with the Oriole Bird on top of the dugout during the seventh inning stretch and tossed caps to fans. The good times rolled.

The Orioles did enough to eek out a win.

Suárez allowed eight runs and 16 hits with eight walks in 8 2/3 innings in his last two starts. His six innings tonight were the most since 2016 with the Giants and one-third off his career high.

Manager Brandon Hyde removed him at 87 pitches. Suárez allowed three hits, walked none, struck out two and lowered his ERA to 2.43.

"I was focused on one thing," Suárez said. "Keep it simple."

He watched from the dugout as Yennier Cano walked the first two batters in the seventh and loaded the bases with one out on Travis Jankowski’s single. Jacob Webb entered to face pinch-hitter Johah Heim, who struck out, but Leody Taveras got ahead 3-0 and walked with the count full to reduce the lead to 2-1.

Marcus Semien bounced sharply to third baseman Ramón Urías, who made a nice backhand stop to finish a nine-pitch at-bat.

Situations that screamed for injured reliever Danny Coulombe were redirected.

Cionel Pérez walked two batters in the eighth inning but pinch-hitter Robbie Grossman struck out on three pitches. Kimbrel struck out two in the ninth and tied the Red Sox’s Kenley Jansen for fifth on the all-time saves list.

Kimbrel is 1-for-5 in save situations this year when entering a game with a one-run lead.

"We got lucky a little bit. You can't walk five guys in the seventh and the eighth against a team like that and have a two-run lead and expect to win," Hyde said. "I think we escaped one there."

Hyde added that Kimbrel has been "magnificent for us."

"He just had that kind of one 10-day funk," Hyde said. "He's come out of it."

The Rangers stranded a runner in the first, third and fourth innings, and Suárez retired the side in order on seven pitches in the fifth to leave him at 73. Two fly balls and a popup in the sixth completed his work. He disposed of 11 of the last 12.

"I thought he had the life to his fastball that he had the first few outings with us," Hyde said. "We saw a lot of 95s, 96s. Some good changeups, also. The cutter had a little more sweep to it than normal. Really efficient for six innings and more than we could ask for."

"Throwing the ball in the strike zone," Suárez said. "Today I was just trying to pitch to contact. They were aggressive the whole time and I was able to get quick outs."

Cowser ran the count full in the fourth inning, worked Max Scherzer for eight pitches and drove a fastball 408 feet at 109.4 mph into the right-field seats for the first run of the game.

"It was a great at-bat," Hyde said. "He was out in front of that fastball. He was on his front foot on a fastball he hit out. He can really hit a heater.

"He's got a ton of ability. There's no doubt. And he's improving."

The 58^th homer in June tied the club record for most hit in a month. The Orioles also reached that total in May 1987. This year’s team is tied with the 2022 Yankees for second-most hit in June.

Cowser doubled and homered last night and has hits in his last four starts. Pitchers began adjusting after he was named American League Rooke of the Month in April and he had to counter.

“I think he’s starting to the last couple weeks,” Hyde said this afternoon. “It’s not easy to be a young player and not easy to go through rough stretches. I think that he’s identified how teams are pitching him differently.

“I think he’s doing a better job of adjusting back, and he shows you the power and the bat speed is definitely there.”

Said Cowser: "I think the hitting staff and I have just been kind of grinding away in the cage. I think the big thing lately has been just giving myself enough space and enough time. It feels like I've been restricting myself with how I'm loading lately, and just really being on time and not being too overly sold out to the fastball and just being able to adjust off of that."

Cowser, who's homered in his last three starts, fouled off a couple off-speed pitches before drilling the fastball.

"I'm definitely thrown more, especially in May and even now," he said. "I think just continuing with it and making sure I have my sights set where I want them to, especially going into that at-bat, is really important. In the past when I've struggled it's been overly aggressive, and lately it's just been really trying to see the ball before I make my move forward."

Scherzer retired Ryan O’Hearn on a fly ball to strand two runners in the third, but the at-bat cost him 10 pitches to raise his total to 51 – six fewer than he threw in five innings against the Royals after his reinstatement from the 60-day injured list. O’Hearn fouled off six in a row.

Jorge Mateo led off the fifth with a single, hustled to second base on James McCann’s fly ball into the right field corner and scored on Gunnar Henderson’s single for a 2-0 lead. Henderson walked in the third to extend his on-base streak to 35 games.

Not many players tag and make it to second on that ball. Mateo is an exception.

"I wanted him to run before that but he got there regardless," Hyde said. "Good baserunner. He's got great speed. That was a big play for us."

"That was one of those ones that you look at it and you're like, 'Well, that's just something Jorgie can do,'" Cowser said. "If I went back to tag up, (Anthony) Sanders is like, 'What are you doing?' Jorgie is just a superb athlete and he does things on a baseball field not a lot of people can. That ended up being the difference in the game."

Scherzer was removed at 5 1/3 innings and 77 pitches.

The Orioles seem far removed from that downward turn to their season. The Yankees defeated the Blue Jays 16-5, keeping the Orioles only percentage points ahead.

"Just says a whole lot about this team," Cowser said. "We don't like to get too down on our lows and too high on our highs. Just kind of staying in the middle all season long is something that it takes to play 162 of these. We have great leadership and a really good clubhouse, so it didn't really surprise me the way we responded."

* Triple-A Norfolk’s Julio Teheran lasted only two-thirds of an inning against Charlotte and allowed seven runs and six hits with two walks and a strikeout. His ERA is 8.94.

Connor Norby’s double tied him with Blake Davis for the sixth-most hits in Norfolk history as an Orioles affiliate with 252. He also moved into sole possession of third for doubles with 62.

Jackson Holliday singled and walked three times.

Matthew Etzel hit his second home run with Double-A Bowie.

Terrin Vavra started at shortstop on his injury rehab assignment with High-A Aberdeen and went 1-for-3.

Single-A Delmarva’s Braxton Bragg allowed an unearned run in five innings. The Shorebirds were no-hit by the Down East Wood Ducks for 7 2/3 innings and they committed five errors.