A look at Suarez's strong start, Santander's 35th and fan passion on postgame radio

When the O’s lose, as they did yesterday, and I host a postgame radio show, as I did yesterday on WBAL Radio, I can usually guess what will stir up Birdland.

This one was easy.

Why did skipper Brandon Hyde take out right-hander Albert Suárez when he had a shutout through 6 2/3 innings? Suarez was at 94 pitches, three off his season-high, but he was rolling and the bottom of the order was coming up.

Sure, I could see him staying with Suárez there. But even if he gets that last out, the O’s are headed to the bullpen in the eighth with no one on base – the same move they made going for Cionel Perez yesterday with two down in the Tampa Bay seventh. He and Craig Kimbrel didn’t get the job done. Plus, the O’s scored just one run.

Fans were disappointed Suárez didn’t get a win there and stay longer in the game and I get that. But a bullpen that wasn’t going to use Yennier Cano and Seranthony Dominguez after they had pitched back-to-back, needed to put up zeros and could not do it.

The O's lost 2-1 to fall to 70-49 and they are once again tied for first with the Yankees with 43 games to go. They ended their long road trip going 5-5.

Had the Orioles won they would have gone 7-0 this season at Tropicana Field. That would have been their most wins in a single season at an opponent park without a loss. 

Props for Big Al: Had you told me on Opening Day that Suárez and Cole Irvin would have combined for 10 scoreless starts of five innings or more by Aug. 11 and Corbin Burnes would have zero, that one would have blown me away.

Sunday was actually the seventh scoreless start by Suárez and his second in a row, but one was just four innings. His last two times out, once as a last-minute fill-in for Grayson Rodriguez, Suárez has thrown 11 2/3 scoreless on six hits.

O’s leaders, scoreless starts, five innings or more:

6 – Albert Suárez
4 – Cole Irvin
3 – Grayson Rodriguez
2 – Dean Kremer, Kyle Bradish
1 – John Means, Cade Povich, Zach Eflin

Burnes is a Cy Young contender but does not have a scoreless start as an Oriole. He does have three games without allowing an earned run.

Tony taters gets to 35: Anthony Santander drove one deep to left and it ended up like 34 other blasts this year, going over the outfield wall.

With his latest big swing on Sunday, Santander hit No. 35 and joined a select group. Just 14 players in O’s history have hit 35 or more and Santander’s blast makes this the 22^nd time an Oriole has reached that number.

For Santander, it was his fourth homer during the 10-game road trip and his 26^th in 63 games since June 1. A player hitting them at that pace all year would finish with 67 home runs.

Rafael Palmeiro has four seasons with the Birds of 35 or more homers, the most of any player. Chris Davis and Boog Powell did this three times each with Manny Machado doing it twice.

Santander joins this of players who had one year of 35 or more as an Oriole: Brady Anderson, Albert Belle, Nelson Cruz, Jim Gentile, Trey Mancini, Mark Reynolds, Frank Robinson, Ken Singleton and Mark Trumbo.

Singleton hit 35 in 1979 and he and Santander are the only O’s switch hitters to hit that many. With No. 36, when he gets it, Santander will have more than any O’s switch-hitter ever. Hall of Famer Eddie Murray hit 30 or more five times, but never more than 33.

The last Oriole to hit 40 or more was Trumbo with 47 in 2016. Santander is on a current pace to hit 47.6 so we will round up to 48.

Just two O’s have ever hit 50 – Davis with 53 in 2013 and Anderson with 50 in 1996.

Farm promotions: The Orioles are moving three players up from High-A Aberdeen to Double-A Bowie. They are outfielders Enrique Bradfield Jr., Tavian Josenberger and Reed Trimble.

Bradfield was the O's first-round draft pick in 2023, No. 17 overall out of Vanderbilt. In 81 games with Aberdeen, he was hitting .267/.345/.363/.708 with three homers, 26 RBIs and 59 steals in 68 tries. He has 84 career steals in 106 games on the O's farm since he was drafted.

Bradfield is ranked as the O's No. 4 prospect in their top 30 by MLBPipeline.com and is No. 8 via Baseball America.

Josenberger, the club's third-round pick last year from the University of Arkansas, was batting .230/.344/.405/.749 with the IronBirds with nine homers, 38 RBIs and 45 steals in 51 attempts.

Trimble, the No. 65 overall pick in 2021 from Southern Miss, has played for three teams this year but mostly with Aberdeen. In 59 games, he has hit .253/.371/.441/.812 with five homers, 28 RBIs and with 27 steals in 27 tries. 

The three players are a big reason why Aberdeen leads all of the minors this year with 308 stolen bases. That is a staggering total. Bradfield and Josenberger leave the IronBirds and the South Atlantic League ranking first and second in steals as they move up. 

When Aberdeen was at 216 steals on the Fourth of July, I wrote this about their prolific stolen base total.