Watkins retires 14 straight, but Orioles lose 6-2 (updated)

A fastball from Spenser Watkins in the first inning this afternoon caught the top of the strike zone or just missed it, depending on the perspective from the mound and behind home plate.

Watkins wanted the call, which would have closed out the inning without a runner reaching base. Umpire Marvin Hudson didn't give it to him. Hudson had the final word.

The ensuing walk led to another, followed by the only two hits off Watkins through the fifth. The Tigers finally broke through again in the sixth after a prolonged stretch of futility, sending Watkins to the bench, frustrated again and unable to prevent the Orioles' 6-2 loss in his first start against his former organization.

The Orioles failed to build their seventh three-game winning streak of the season and settled for a split of the series, which left their record at 37-67 overall and 11-30 during the day.

Watkins was trying to give the rotation its seventh start of six innings or more in the last 13 games, but he just fell short. He retired 14 batters in a row before Robbie Grossman tripled on an 0-2 pitch with one out in the sixth and scored on Miguel Cabrera's fly ball to right.

Manager Brandon Hyde brought in another rookie, Conner Greene, and Watkins fumed in the dugout - whether because of the elevated two-strike fastball to Grossman, Cabrera's fly ball to the opposite field after the right-hander appeared to be pitching around him, or something else.

The MASN cameras showed Watkins yelling into a towel, slamming his hands against the padded dugout railing and then mumbling to himself.

"For me, that was mostly the pitch count (29) in the first inning, didn't get me an opportunity to fully finish that last inning," Watkins said on his Zoom call. "I've said it from Day One, for me, my pride rides in eating innings, and to fill those innings and keep my pitch count low, that's a pride thing for me. So, that was more so frustration in not giving myself the opportunity to finish that inning."

The Orioles came out swinging in the first, scoring twice within four batters and six pitches from Tigers left-hander Tyler Alexander. Austin Hays, Ryan Mountcastle and Anthony Santander doubled - the last two to extremely deep center field.

Statcast registered Mountcastle's ball at 421 feet with an exit velocity of 102.6 mph. Santander's ball traveled 409 feet with an exit velo of 106.5 mph.

The three doubles were followed by a Santander single in the third and nothing else until Mountcastle singled in the eighth.

"We gave a lot of at-bats away the second inning on just by some weak contact and weak fly balls, choppers to the left side type of at-bats there the rest of the game," Hyde said on Zoom.

Watkins walked Grossman and Cabrera with two outs in the first inning, showing his displeasure with Hudson's strike zone while turning his back to the plate, and Jeimer Candelario singled on a ball deflected by first baseman Trey Mancini to slice the lead in half.

Rookie Eric Haase doubled to center field and the Tigers led 3-2. The ball left his bat at 108.9 mph and traveled 425 feet to keep the loud noises coming in the inning.

Watkins was forced to throw 29 pitches, thinking he had retired the side in order on two ground balls and a strikeout. The first four produced two outs.

"That's part of this game, it's a judgment call, so that's up to the umpire and what he's feeling that day," Watkins said. "For me, I've got to do a better job of getting into the count earlier than 3-2. That's baseball in the sense of how the umpires are going to react to what a pitch is. It's just a matter of not putting myself in that position to be a borderline pitch."

"The ball didn't bounce our way today," Hyde said. "He got squeezed a little on the Grossman walk. That would have been three outs and inning over and a low pitch count. And that ball to Trey hit something and kind of shot up the opposite way, kind of a bad luck bounce right by the bag. They had a couple flares that dropped in. It's disappointing because we came out swinging the bat so well the first inning right away and then didn't do much offensively."

Two ground balls sandwiched around a strikeout got Watkins back in the dugout after only 13 pitches in the second inning. He coaxed three popups on 13 pitches in the third and needed only eight to retire the side in order in the fourth.

Alexander threw 12 pitches just to retire Domingo Leyba and end the fourth inning. Erasmo Ramírez replaced him in the fifth and disposed of the Orioles on five pitches.

Third baseman Maikel Franco helped to shorten the fourth for Watkins, failing to make a clean play on a backhand attempt at Haase's grounder, slipping and delivering a two-hop throw to Mancini while landing on his left hip and rolling over.

Rookie Akil Baddoo took a 91 mph fastball for a third strike to end the fifth inning. Watkins almost broke a sweat with 14 pitches, which raised his game total to 77 and assured that he'd return for the sixth.

A fly ball pitcher had the Tigers beating the ball into the ground until Grossman's triple. Watkins threw 89 pitches in his fifth major league start and allowed four runs and three hits to leave his ERA at 3.81. More chances are coming.

"It could have unraveled there, so he did a really nice job," Hyde said. "After giving up the triple to Grossman, we didn't want Cabrera to beat us, but that 3-2 pitch caught too much of the plate. I think it was probably still a ball, but still too close for Cabrera to reach. Besides that, he was excellent from the second inning into the sixth. He kept us right there and we just didn't score after the first inning."

Watkins described the chance to pitch at Comerica Park as "incredible, incredible."

"To have that opportunity finally to get there after my years seeing it from the outside in was incredible," he said. "I'm glad I was able to do it in the orange and black. It was an incredible feeling, a lot of emotions early on, but I had to wrangle those in the first inning. But after that I felt comfortable."

Greene put runners on the corners with no outs in the seventh and struck out Zack Short. Keegan Akin came out of the bullpen after leaving the COVID-19 injured list earlier today, his first appearance since July 16, and Baddoo singled for a 5-2 lead.

A bloop single by Jonathan Schoop and fly ball by Grossman produced another run, with Santander again making a late throw to the plate when it appeared that he had a shot to get the runner.

Shaun Anderson walked Cabrera and left the bases loaded.

Note: Chris Shaw, on an injury rehab assignment with Single-A Aberdeen, hit a grand slam in the first inning. Shaw was 1-for-39 with Triple-A Norfolk.