The O's woes: Baltimore loses in near no-hitter tonight in series opener at Detroit (updated)

DETROIT – The storyline for the game tonight at Detroit in the series-opener for the Orioles was not just would their offense finally get going.

It was would they get a hit or even a baserunner?

Their batters who had scored just 15 runs their past seven games, were going down quickly and too many times taking called third strikes. They were getting nothing going.

And they almost never did.

Gunnar Henderson's two-out triple down the right-field line in the ninth ended Detroit's combined no-hit bid. But one strikeout of Anthony Santander later, the O's had lost this game 1-0 in the series opener in front of 25,253 at Comerica Park.

Tonight, four Detroit Tigers pitchers were looking for a combined no-hitter until Henderson got the O's first and only hit with one out to go. 

It would have been the eighth no-hitter pitched against the O's in team history and the first-ever combined effort. The Tigers took a perfect game into the eighth, retiring the first 21 batters in order, until Adley Rutschman drew a leadoff walk.

Righthy Beau Brieske, lefty Brant Hurter, righty Brenan Hanifee and left-hander Tyler Holton came close to history for Detroit. They were seeking the 10th no-hitter in Tigers history and their most recent one was also a combined effort. Three pitchers no-hit Toronto on July 8, 2023. 

Brieske was used as an opener and got four outs. Hurter fanned eight on 71 pitches over 5 2/3 innings. Hanifee, the O's fourth-round draft pick in 2016, went an inning and Holton pitched the ninth, getting the final three outs for his eighth save.

He got No. 8 hitter Emmanuel Rivera to fly to right and then Coby Mayo pinch hit for Jackson Holliday and struck out looking. Henderson, however, stood in the way of Holton finishing off what would have been a historic night for Detroit. 

He drilled a clean triple down the right-field line on a first-pitch sweeper. But Santander fanned on a 91 mph fastball for the Orioles' 13th strikeout of the game. 

The Tigers took a 1-0 lead two batters into the home first. Kerry Carpenter, their DH, slammed a first-pitch curveball off O’s starter Zach Eflin, out to right field for a 1-0 lead. Carpenter’s 15^th homer had an exit velocity of 109.6 mph and the ball went 414 feet. That one run was a difference maker in Friday night's matchup. 

Eflin allowed just three home runs in his first five O’s starts. Then he gave up two homers last Saturday versus Tampa Bay and Carpenter’s first-inning blast tonight.

For the year, after that homer, Eflin had walked 17 batters and given up 20 home runs.

After the homer the Orioles were down but by just 1-0. However, their struggling offense was still struggling.

Brieske got his four outs on 16 pitches and lefty Hurter came on during the O’s second.

They still would get nothing going and they went three up and out in each of the first five innings on 53 Detroit pitches.

In the first five frames, the closest they came to a hit was on Cedric Mullins’ hard-hit grounder up the first base line with two outs in the fourth. First baseman Spencer Torkelson made a nice play to his glove side and retired Mullins with a flip to Hurter covering the bag.

It got no better in the Baltimore sixth when Colton Cowser, Rivera and Holliday all struck out. So 18 up and 18 out to that point. Cowser got rung up on a sweeper that was a bit low. Rivera fanned on a low and in sweeper and Holliday fanned on a 90.6 mph two-seamer that was in the middle of the plate.

Even by the struggling O’s offensive standards of recent days, this was bad. No hits and a perfect game against them through six innings.

In the seventh, the top of the order went groundout, groundout, strikeout. In the Baltimore eighth when Rutschman drew a leadoff walk, it ended the Tigers' bid for the first combined perfect game in MLB history.

Still, they got no hits in the inning. And when Cowser fanned to end the inning, it was the O's 11th strikeout of the night and it looked as if the O's might be on the wrong side of history.

They would finally get a hit but no runs as the Orioles were shutout for the seventh time this year and second time in the last five games. 

There have been seven no-hitters against the Orioles:

* Angels’ Bo Belinsky on May 5, 1962.

* Angels' Nolan Ryan on June 1, 1975.

* Brewers' Juan Nieves on April 15, 1987.

* White Sox's Wilson Alvarez on Aug. 11, 1991.

* Red Sox’s Hideo Nomo on April 4, 2001.

* Red Sox’s Clay Buchholz on Sept. 1, 2007.

* Mariners' Hisashi Iwakuma on Aug. 12, 2015.

Despite the lack of offense, Eflin had a strong start. He allowed just the one run on five hits over 6 2/3 innings. He falls to 5-2 with an ERA of 2.22 in seven O’s starts. He’s allowed one run or less four times.

Tonight he walked one and fanned three throwing 100 pitches, 64 for strikes and lowered his ERA for the year between two teams to 3.55.

With the loss, the Orioles have dropped five of six and six of eight. They are 9-12 the last 21 games and 25-27 in the second half. With the Yankees win over Boston, they have fallen three games back of New York in the AL East. 

Detroit, now 76-72, has won 14 of its past 20 games. The Tigers are 21-9 the last 30 games, the best record in MLB during that span. 

A few postgame quotes:

Manager Brandon Hyde asked was this good Detroit pitching or poor O's hitting?: “I think it’s probably a combination of both. You know you’ve got to give that left-hander a lot of credit. It’s a funky arm angle. He was pumping strikes and getting ahead of us. We had a tough time staying on him and we didn’t center him at all.

“So, tough night offensively for us. And you know, but we were right in it 1-0, Eff was great. Only gave up that solo homer. I thought Soto did a nice job and Bowman got a big out there."

Hyde, with games dwindling, how tough a loss?: “Well, it’s one game and we’ve got to come back tomorrow. You know we’ve just got to try to win every game. It’s not from a lack of effort. We just didn’t get any hits tonight, except for Gunnar there with two outs in the ninth. So, we’ve got to take some better at-bats and you know hopefully our guys will rebound. Have to come out tomorrow and compete."

Hyde, what has to change for the offense?: "We’ve had a tough second half offensively. We’ve had some guys that have really struggled for the first time in their careers. We’re young. There’s a lot of things. But we’ve got to do the best right now with what we’ve got with our roster. We’ve got to come out tomorrow and compete and try to win a game."

Henderson what was the dugout like on a night like this?: "You just have to try and stay loose, you don’t want to sit there and press. I mean we know what’s going on, they know what’s going on, so just go out there and continue with the same approach. You don’t want to go out there and try to do more to end it. So, just go out there and continue to have fun, it’s hard to do at times but I feel like that’s the way to go about it."

Henderson, how hard is it to keep a positive vibe right now?: "I mean we know what’s at stake but at the same time you can’t sit just there and beat yourself up over it, it’s not going to help you at all. So, it’s just something that we’re all learning, at least me I’m learning how to go through, a lot of the young guys have never been through this as well so we’re learning how to go through it. Feel like we’ll be more battle tested towards the end so."

Eflin, was it challenging pitching opposite a no-hit bid?: “For me, in a nutshell, it was more so just first-pitch strikes. I felt like I went 1-0, 2-0 to pretty much their entire lineup. That’s not normally the way I pitch, so it kind of felt like an uphill outing the whole time. I was able to make some important pitches in big situations. First time I threw to Adley, I thought he called a really good game. It was fun working with him, looking forward to the next one."

This was the first time the Orioles were one-hit since Aug. 30, 2022 versus Cleveland. This was Detroit's first one-hit shutout since Sept. 17, 2017 versus the Chicago White Sox.