Rich Dubroff

Mateo’s 3-run homer, sharp pitching push Orioles past Braves, 4-0

BALTIMORE—The Orioles came home early Tuesday morning after a successful eight-game road trip to Toronto and Tampa Bay, and continued their success against one of the major league’s best teams, the Atlanta Braves.

After learning the left-hander Danny Coulombe was headed to the 15-day injured list with left elbow inflammation, Albert Suárez and four relievers combined to shut out the Braves, 4-0, before 24,048 at Oriole Park on Tuesday night.

It was the Orioles’ fifth straight win, and their sixth shutout. They limited Atlanta to five hits.

In his first at-bat since being activated from the 7-day concussion list, Jorge Mateo hit a three-run home run against Max Fried (6-3) in the second. It was his fourth of the season and scored Anthony Santander, who walked, and Austin Hays, who had the first of his three hits.

Suárez (3-0) pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing four hits, but there was no shortage of drama.

Michael Harris II led off the game with a triple and was stranded at third when Suárez got three outs on a grounder to short by Ozzie Albies, a strikeout of Austin Riley and a popup to first by Matt Olson.

Suárez walked Marcell Ozuna to lead off the second and Jared Kelenic with one out. Both runners moved up when Sean Murphy filed to deep left, but Suárez again avoided a run when Orlando Arcia flied to left.

With one out in the sixth, Olson and Ozuna singled, and Jacob Webb was summoned. He struck out Adam Duvall and Kelencic flied to right.

The Orioles (44-33) added a run in the bottom of the sixth against Fried on Hays’ single to left to take a 4-0 lead over the Braves (35-29).

After two outs in the seventh, Harris walked, and Ozzie Albies’ grounder to second was booted by Westburg, his second error in as many games. Yennier Cano struck out Riley to end the seventh.

Cionel Pérez and Dillon Tate pitched scoreless innings in the eighth and ninth.

Rich Dubroff

Rich Dubroff grew up in Brooklyn as a fan of New York teams, but after he moved to Baltimore, quickly adopted the Orioles and Colts. After nearly two decades as a freelancer assisting on Orioles coverage for several outlets, principally The Capital in Annapolis and The Carroll County Times, Dubroff began covering the team fulltime in 2011. He spent five years at Comcast SportsNet’s website and for the last two seasons, wrote for PressBoxonline.com, Dubroff lives in Baltimore with his wife of more than 30 years, Susan.

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Rich Dubroff

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