More rain and less offense for Orioles in 3-1 loss (updated)

Tyler Wells wouldn’t let the Reds put the ball on the ground tonight until the sixth inning, with the Orioles defense recording its first assist on his 99^th and final pitch.

Strikeouts, fly balls and popups were the items on his menu. He walked off the mound for the last time unsure whether he’d have to stomach a loss.

The Orioles followed their 10-run outburst last night by settling for a sacrifice fly in the second inning and wasting a quality start from Wells in a 3-1 loss to the Reds before an announced crowd of 14,057 at Camden Yards.

The teams made it through seven innings before another storm arrived. The third delay in two nights lasted one hour and 43 minutes.

Austin Hays took a called third strike from reliever Lucas Sims to strand two runners in the bottom of the seventh. It began to pour, and fans cleared the lower section.

TJ Friedl cleared the right field fence against Bryan Baker with one out in the eighth, and the Orioles fell to 48-30. They can claim their 17^th series Wednesday night.

Gunnar Henderson doubled off Buck Farmer with two outs in the eighth, giving the Orioles three hits, but Aaron Hicks flied out. Reds closer Alexis Díaz improved to 22-for-22 in save chances in the ninth.

Jordan Westburg singled twice, walked and lined to right field in his second major league game. He also made a sliding stop of Will Benson’s ground ball, clocked at 107.7 mph, to end the top of the seventh.

Westburg accounted for the only hits off Reds rookie Andrew Abbott through six innings. Sims walked two batters and hit Adam Frazier in the seventh, but the Orioles couldn’t push across the tying run.

All they could do was stay dry.

"Really good at-bats once again," manager Brandon Hyde said of Westburg. "Pretty impressive first couple games."

Wells allowed two runs and four hits in six innings, with one walk and seven strikeouts, and registered his sixth quality start. He retired the first nine batters – four on strikeouts and five on fly balls. Right fielder Ryan McKenna recorded four putouts.

A nice plan that Wells hatched, but it wasn’t sustainable.

Friedl led off the fourth with a bunt single up the third base line on a 1-2 count, and he scored on Matt McLain’s game-tying double off the center field fence. A fly ball with a little too much juice.

Wells retired the next three batters, the first two on strikeouts. A walk and single with one out in the fifth turned harmless, and Wells ran his strikeout total to seven and his pitch count to 84.

The Orioles defense still didn’t have an assist.

Hicks didn’t have any more room to chase Matt McLain’s fly ball to center field leading off the sixth, and the Reds led 2-1. The 19^th home run surrendered by Wells this season.

"It's just baseball, it's how it goes," Wells said. "With the bunt and the double, that's how we've scored some runs, as well. It's just how it goes."

Asked how he felt about his execution on the pitch to McLain, Wells said, "That was a home run, so it wasn't executed very well."

Twenty-five of his 35 runs have come via the homer. But his 0.88 WHIP still leads the majors.

"I thought Tyler was really good once again," Hyde said.

"We had a tough time with Abbott tonight. We kind of knew that was going to be a tough one coming in, and he was really, really good. We had a tough time getting anything going against him."

Elly De la Cruz grounded to first baseman Ramón Urías in the sixth, and Henderson fielded Jake Fraley’s grounder and threw him out for the elusive assist.

That was one more than the Reds defense had recorded.

This series seems to bring out the weird. Like Ryan O'Hearn taking second base on defensive indifference with two outs in the ninth, turning back toward first as if thinking it was a foul ball, and getting back to second only because of a poor throw. Scored as a caught stealing and error on the pitcher.

"We were waving for him to go back to the bag," Hyde said.

Frazier walked and Austin Hays flied to center to finally end the game, and the madness.

Hyde heaped more praise on Wells earlier in the day.

“For me, you can talk about him being an All-Star candidate, just what he’s done this first half and what he’s been for our club. Every fifth day giving us a chance to win, and pitched extremely well.” Hyde said.

“He’s been so good for us this year, and I love the growth he’s made and the progress he’s made over the last couple years. Really says a lot about him, changing the roles and not pitching above Double-A and closing games in the big leagues the next year, to starting, to now starting without really much of a leash and pitching extremely well. I’m really happy for him.”

The sun reflected off the warehouse as Westburg batted in the second inning. He lined a single into left field at 99 mph, much sharper than his debut hit last night, and Hicks raced to third base following his leadoff walk. Hicks scored on McKenna’s fly ball to right.

McKenna came off the bench Sunday and delivered a walk-off home run in the 10^th. He went 1-for-2 last night with a walk, hit by pitch and two runs scored, and tallied his 11^th RBI tonight to match his 2022 total in 43 fewer games

Abbott, the No. 60 prospect in baseball per MLB Pipeline, was making his fifth major league start. He hadn’t allowed a run in two road games totaling 11 2/3 innings before tonight.

"He's really aggressive and challenges us in the strike zone, and his fastball's got a ton of life to it," Hyde said. "It's a really good arm and he knows how to pitch. We just didn't square many balls up against him, and a tough time getting any rallies going."

Westburg pulled a changeup into left with two outs in the fourth inning, his third hit since the Orioles selected his contract from Triple-A Norfolk on Monday.

Sims walked pinch-hitter Cedric Mullins leading off the seventh and attempted two pickoffs to reach his limit under the new rules. Mullins was thrown out trying to steal on a pitchout, the Reds’ first assist.

The game began with Orioles hitters having a 35.7 percent fly ball rate, the second highest in the majors, while Cincinnati pitching had the third highest rate 35.1 percent, according to STATS.

Hyde made six defensive changes after the inning, which put Westburg at third base and Henderson at short. A dream left side of the infield for prospect lovers.

Frazier took over second base after entering as a pinch-hitter. Hicks moved to right field, O’Hearn went to first base after batting for Urías, and Mullins went to center.

Then, they headed indoors and waited out the latest storm.

Keegan Akin had retired the side in order with two strikeouts in the seventh. Baker struck out two in the eighth, but the Reds padded their lead and produced their 28th comeback win to tie the Orioles for the major league lead.

* Hyde said earlier today that he checks the standings. He doesn’t pretend to be blind to them but won’t become distracted.

“I follow them. I look every night. I look in the morning if I didn’t stay up for the West Coast games,” he said.

“I am pretty focused on daily and series. I really just focus on our team. … But I am aware of what’s going on around the league. I do stay here way too long at night. I have multiple TVs in my office that I watch too much baseball postgame of our game.”

* Here are the starters for the weekend series against the Twins at Camden Yards:

Friday: RHP Dean Kremer (8-3, 4.50 ERA) vs. RHP Pablo López (3-5, 4.41 ERA)
Saturday: RHP Kyle Bradish (4-3, 3.75 ERA) vs. RHP Bailey Ober (4-4, 2.97 ERA)
Sunday: LHP Cole Irvin (1-3, 7.18 ERA) vs. RHP Sonny Gray (4-2, 2.67 ERA)

* High-A Aberdeen’s Daniel Lloyd tossed five scoreless innings with five strikeouts. Second baseman Frederick Bencosme had three hits, a walk and two RBIs. Shortstop Jackson Holliday went 1-for-3 with a double, walk and two runs scored.