Pillar homers off Coulombe in eighth to give Braves 5-4 win over Orioles (updated)

ATLANTA – The Orioles keep coming at you. To call them pesky is too polite. They are relentless and trying to prove to skeptics that they’re real.

Fall behind early, lose a lead, call the bullpen after another start stalls in the middle innings. Summon another rally, turn on the sprinklers in the dugout and keep riding the wave of wins. That’s how it’s worked for most of the season.

The doubters will point to a rotation with seven quality starts in 33 games, and to a bullpen that might not hold up under the burden. That’s the rain on the parade.

Kevin Pillar’s two-run pinch-hit homer off Danny Coulombe in the eighth inning gave the Braves a 5-4 win over the Orioles before an announced sellout crowd of 41,454 at Truist Park. Coulombe replaced Bryan Baker after Austin Riley’s leadoff double and Sean Murphy’s lineout.

On the verge of their 12^th comeback victory and eighth series win in a row, with a chance to go 23-10 and move 13 games above .500 for the first time since the conclusion of the 2016 season, the Orioles finally collapsed under pressure applied by the team with the National League’s best record.

Adam Frazier drove in three runs, Cionel Pérez retired all four batters he faced after replacing Kyle Bradish, and Baker coaxed a double play grounder from Matt Olson after putting two runners on base in the seventh. Manager Brandon Hyde stayed away from Yennier Cano, who threw two innings and 32 pitches Thursday in Kansas City, and the ‘pen couldn’t hold the lead, with Pillar delivering his 100^th career home run and 15th against the Orioles.

The bullpen ranked first in the majors Tuesday with a 2.86 ERA, but it's ninth after tonight at 3.37.

“We were staying away from Cano tonight just because of his workload the last series and two innings a couple days ago," Hyde said. "Unfortunately, that’s just part of the game. Other guys have to pitch in those spots and Danny’s done a great job for us so far this year, and just one bad pitch.

"We have five months to go, so health is important and not overusing guys is important. Right now, I prefer not to use Félix (Bautista) before the ninth inning. And maybe as we go along that might change, but Cano, he's pitched a ton for us so far. We have other guys in the bullpen who have been throwing the ball well. They're going to get opportunities."

Pillar laid off a slider and drove a fastball 405 feet for the first home run allowed by Coulombe in 11 1/3 innings.

"I mean, it sucks," Coulombe said. "I put the ball in the middle of the plate and he put a really good swing on it. What can you do? That's baseball."

Coulombe wanted to go up and in to Pillar.

"When you leave it middle, that's what happens to a really good hitter," Coulombe said.

"Life of a reliever. You've got to have a short memory."

Bradish was removed after five innings and 86 pitches, and after Frazier’s fielder’s choice grounder that gave the Orioles a 4-3 lead in the top of the sixth.

"That's a really tough lineup to pitch to and I thought he had really good stuff," Hyde said. "I thought the command escaped him a little bit maybe toward the end of his outing, but going five innings, only giving up a couple runs against that team is pretty good."

"Stuff I thought was really good, better than my last couple outings," Bradish said. "Location was good. They hit some good pitches, but overall, I would say that was probably my best outing this year so far.

"We did a lot of good work in my bullpen sessions this week, kind of worked on some mechanical things to get that velo back. It's been down the past couple outings. And I think I sustained it well today."

Bradish couldn’t produce a shutdown inning in the fourth and Atlanta tied the game on Eddie Rosario’s RBI single after Olson led off with a single and Murphy was hit by a pitch with one out. Vaughn Grissom doubled with one out in the fifth, with Anthony Santander attempting a diving catch, and he scored the go-ahead run on Ronald Acuña Jr.’s single.

Kyle Stowers raced back and made a leaping catch near the left field fence to rob Riley and save at least one run.

"He's played really well defensively and that was a heck of a play, game-changing defensive play," Hyde said. "He definitely works on his defense and he's playing extremely well out there."

Braves reliever Nick Anderson replaced Spencer Strider, who struck out 10 batters in five innings, and the Orioles scored twice to reclaim the lead. Ryan Mountcastle singled with one out and scored on Santander’s second double of the night. Santander has two hits in five consecutive games and six of seven.

Gunnar Henderson reached on Grissom’s fielding error and Frazier beat the relay on a potential double play grounder.

Frazier had a two-run single in the fourth and produced his first three-RBI game since Sept. 22 with the Mariners.

Bradish retired the first six batters before Marcell Ozuna led off the third inning with a home run on the ninth pitch of the at-bat, the second four-seam fastball thrown in the sequence. Ozuna has four homers in his last four games.

Michael Harris II walked and forgot there was only one out on Acuña’s liner to center. Harris was barreling toward third base when Cedric Mullins threw the ball to Urías, who flipped it to Jorge Mateo covering first.

Strider also retired the first six batters before Mateo led off the top of the third with a double and moved to third base with one out on a balk. Strider struck out three batters in the inning, including Mullins, who was 14-for-29 with 26 RBIs with runners in scoring position.

The fourth also came close to being a wasted effort. Mountcastle singled with one out to end his streak of extra-base hits at eight and Santander doubled to right-center field. Henderson struck out on the ninth pitch of the at-bat, but Frazier lined a 97.6 mph fastball to the opposite field for a 2-1 lead.

Frazier also stole his sixth base before Mateo became Strider’s eighth strikeout victim.

Urías and Mullins brought the total to 10 in the fifth, and Strider induced 21 swings and misses, but he was up to 95 pitches. Mullins fanned three times.

The Orioles got rid of Strider, who totaled five innings for the fourth time this season. They loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh against left-hander Dylan Lee and Mountcastle lined out to deep left field, the ball leaving his bat at 109 mph. Mullins had singled off Lee for another left-on-left conquest.

Grissom singled off Baker in the seventh and Acuña walked. Olson got ahead 3-1 and grounded to Mateo near the bag for the double play.

Urías was flawless in his major league debut at first base, handling throws with the proper footwork, fielding a ground ball for the unassisted out, and fielding another and making the flip to Bradish. He handled Bradish’s throw that threatened to tail into Ozuna running to first base with two on and two outs in the fourth, coming off the bag to snatch it and making a sweeping tag.

"Played really well over there," Hyde said. "Ramón plays with a ton of confidence defensively and his reaction last night when I talked to him about it was the reason why it made it easy for me, because he had no concern with playing over there."

The Orioles are no longer flawless in the series.

"This game is tough," Bradish said. "You're not going to have your A-plus stuff every outing. But they (relievers) have basically done it all year long. It was a (1-0) heater that he got, pinch-hit, and he put a good swing on it. But I think moving forward, I have full faith in this bullpen."

* Down on the farm, Jordan Westburg hit his eighth home run for Triple-A Norfolk in a 5-0 win over Durham. Ryan Watson tossed four scoreless innings with three hits and five strikeouts. Chris Vallimont had four scoreless innings with one hit and six strikeouts.

Connor Norby drove in two runs.

Double-A Bowie’s Garrett Stallings was charged with six runs and seven hits in two-thirds of an inning in relief. He also threw a wild pitch.

Dillon Tate has pitched in back-to-back games with Bowie on his injury rehab assignment. He faced three batters tonight, walking two.

Zach Watson hit his fourth home run and Billy Cook hit his second. Cook, Heston Kjerstad, Coby Mayo and César Prieto each had two hits. Kjerstad is batting .300 with a 1.044 OPS.

High-A Aberdeen’s Jackson Holliday had two hits, two RBIs and a walk and is batting .297 with an .894 OPS. Third baseman Max Wagner collected a triple and his third home run.

Alex Pham tossed five scoreless innings with one hit allowed and six strikeouts.

Single-A Delmarva catcher Samuel Basallo went 2-for-5 with a triple and three RBIs.