Orioles bullpen takes its hits in Bradenton, Carlson homers in 15-5 loss to Pirates

BRADENTON, Fla. – The Orioles held pitchers fielding practice inside the ballpark this week in Sarasota. They took turns chasing soft ground balls that manager Brandon Hyde rolled near them, causing them to break left or right from the mound, and waited for a teammate to yell “first” or “third.”

A reminder of those tedious drills came in the fourth inning today when reliever Gregory Soto bounced a throw to first base in an attempt to retire the Pirates’ Ji Hwan Bae with one out. The fielding part went smoothly, but not the last part.

The ball got past Coby Mayo, allowing Bae to reach second base. Soto walked the next two batters and Bae came home with the tie-breaking run when Oneil Cruz grounded into a force.

Soto had strung together three straight scoreless outings before allowing an unearned run today. He’s totaled five innings and surrendered two earned, five hits, his first two walks and six strikeouts.

Today’s appearance consisted of 19 pitches and only seven strikes.

It would get better for the bullpen and then much, much worse.

Left-hander Keegan Akin retired the side in order in the fifth inning in a game that dragged due to the sloppy play. Akin has allowed three runs in 6 2/3 innings, with only one walk and eight strikeouts.

Seranthony Domínguez was the third reliever to appear who’s going to make the club, and he loaded the bases with two outs and allowed three runs on an infield hit that should have been ruled an error and Jack Suwinski’s two-run single on the 12^th pitch of the at-bat.

Domínguez allowed three hits, walked two batters and struck out two in two-thirds of an inning. The Pirates worked him for 38 pitches, 23 for strikes.

Domínguez struck out Adam Frazier on a 97.5 mph fastball after touching 98.1 earlier in the at-bat. Bae doubled into right-center on a 97.4 mph fastball, Alika Williams fanned on a 97.8 mph fastball, Endy Rodríguez walked after seeing five sliders and two fastballs, and Cruz also ran the count full before taking a 98 mph fastball to load the bases.

Second baseman Collin Burns misplayed Abraham Gutierrez’s grounder, which was generously scored a hit. Suwinski fouled off six pitches in a row, took a slider that missed and pulled a fastball into right.

Domínguez has a 23.14 ERA with 12 runs allowed in 4 2/3 innings. Also, 14 hits, five walks, nine strikeouts and four homers.

* Dylan Carlson led off today’s game by getting ahead 2-0 in the count and hitting his second spring training home run at 109.6 mph off the bat.

A third straight four-seam fastball from Carmen Mlodzinski was battered.

Carlson’s other home run was hit in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s 13-5 loss to the Braves in Sarasota. He isn’t expected to break camp with the team unless there’s an injury.

Carlson, who signed a $975,000 contract in January, was 4-for-20 with eight strikeouts before today. He singled to lead off the third inning, went to third base on an errant pickoff throw and was stranded, and he tied the game in the fourth with a sacrifice fly on Jack Suwinski’s spectacular diving catch in right-center field.

* Thaddeus Ward started for the Orioles and allowed four runs and five hits in 2 2/3 innings. He walked three batters and struck out three.

Ward allowed a run in the first inning on a leadoff walk, Gary Sánchez error and Cruz RBI single, and a run in the second on former Oriole DJ Stewart’s leadoff walk, a Nick Gonzales double and ground ball from former Oriole Adam Frazier.

The Pirates scored again in the third on a walk, single and Ward’s errant pickoff throw that brought home Rodríguez. Suwinski doubled on a fly ball to left-center field, Stewart struck out and Gonzales reached on an infield hit for a 4-1 lead.

Luis Vazquez charged the ball, reached down for it and couldn’t make the play. It was the last batter for Ward, who logged 67 pitches and did more throwing in the bullpen.

* The Orioles put runners on the corners with one out in the third and Sánchez lined out to Frazier at 106.9 mph. … Ben Vespi, brother of former Orioles reliever Nick Vespi, inherited two runners from Ward and Sánchez threw out Gonzales trying to steal. … Coby Mayo led off the fourth with a gift double on a fly ball that Suwinski dropped in shallow right-center, and he scored on Vimael Machín’s ground ball up the middle that eluded two gloves. The inning also included Vazquez’s infield single, a balk and a wild pitch that scored Machín. … Mayo reached on an infield single leading off the sixth. … Corbin Martin allowed three runs in 1 1/3 innings and Noah Denoyer was charged with four runs in the eighth on Henry Davis’ grand slam. … A run scored in the top of the eighth when Anthony Servideo was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.