When the O's got a one-run lead on the Dodgers, their bullpen made it stand up

LOS ANGELES – In front of a sellout crowd on the road, with a chance to gain a game on the Yankees, against a hot team with the best record in baseball, the Orioles pitching made three runs stand up. 

The Orioles bullpen – the much-maligned O’s bullpen – stood tall.

They had repeated chances to give up the big hit, the soul-crushing hit, the hit to blow the game. But they did not.

The same bullpen that had struggled so badly in recent weeks? Yes, that bullpen.

In what had to qualify as one of the O’s best and most impressive wins of the year, they beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2 Tuesday to open a big three-game series.

They are now 77-56 and have gone 3-2 in the last five versus Houston and the Dodgers. Six of the last nine O’s game have been close games, decided by one or two runs. The Orioles are 4-2 in those games.

Los Angeles played without Freddie Freeman last night, as he was resting a jammed finger. But their first three still was formidable with Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernández. And they combined to go 4-for-11 with an RBI. But no huge hits, no extra-base hits, no-game changing swings.

The O’s ‘pen got through that part of the order in both the fifth and eighth innings while nursing the one-run lead.

On the night, against Matt Bowman, Cionel Pérez, Yennier Cano and Seranthony Domínguez, Los Angeles went 2-for-16 and 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.

“I thought Bowman honestly got the biggest outs of the game there, coming in in that spot,” manager Brandon Hyde said of his work in the fifth. “Middle of the order right-handed bats with traffic. Just a heckuva job by him. And then the guys behind him. Cionel threw the ball great. Nice to see Cano really throw the ball well and Seranthony dodged some trouble there in the ninth inning with really good stuff. That last ball wasn’t sure if that was going to be in the gap or not, you can never tell with Dodger Stadium. Nice job holding on for the win.”

Ryan O’Hearn hit a solo homer off right-hander Jack Flaherty in the second to end a 33-game homerless run. Ramón Urías has not had a homer drought, in fact he hit his fifth in the last 16 games. It was a two-run shot in the fifth for a 3-2 lead.

“He’s been our offense the last couple weeks,” Hyde said. “Really good at-bats. Obviously, the homer, but the walk. We’re not swinging the bat great right now and he’s carrying us a little bit offensively in some of these wins, and he’s playing with a lot of energy right now. He’s playing great.”

Bowman would get Betts and Hernández on fly outs to strand two runners in the fifth and then threw a 1-2-3 sixth. He’s faced 12 batters in four perfect innings as an Oriole and has stranded three inherited runners.

“We get the lead and then Bowman, in an area we’ve struggled, kind of that middle part of the game, runners in scoring position, finding the right guy in that sixth, seventh inning where the game is kind of in balance. We’ve had a tough time cycling through guys and Bowman did a great job tonight," Hyde said.

Domínguez needed 32 pitches to close it out. With two on and two outs he threw a 2-2 fastball that Chris Taylor lined to left for the final out.

Birdland could exhale with a close win secured finally. 

Domínguez is now 6-for-6 in O’s save chances with an ERA of 2.57 and 0.86 WHIP over 15 games.

Surprising stat alert: The O’s ‘pen has now thrown scoreless ball in four of the past five games, with an ERA of 0.98, allowing two runs over 18 1/3 innings.

The Dodgers had won 12 of 16 and 15 of 21, they were 43-23 at home and 9-3 versus AL East teams. The O’s started Irvin against Flaherty but they pulled it out.

It was a game with a playoff atmosphere and on a Tuesday night the Dodgers sold it out with 52,382 on hand.

"Yeah, that’s crazy. It’s unbelievable, the emotion over there on a Tuesday. I’m looking forward to winning some more games here," said Urías.

In his past 16 games, Urías is batting .304 (14-for-46), slugging .696 with five homers, 15 RBIs and an OPS of 1.061.

He just keeps getting big hits.

"I just want to say experience maybe," he cited for the reason he's been so clutch. "Now, I have a couple years in the Major Leagues that gave me that experience, and just feeling really good right now.

"I feel amazing. I feel good for helping the team. I think we all go through ups and downs during the season, because it’s so long. Just happy to have the win tonight."

The Orioles still are not scoring a lot of runs - they've scored nine the last three games, 19 in the past six and 36 runs the last 10 games.

But for one night they won a game and it felt like a big win. 

Also worth noting: You may have been sleeping when our initial game story was published at nearly 1 a.m., but you can read that here.

Via O's twitter, you can see O'Hearn's homer here and Urias' homer here. And the last out is here.