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ST. PETERSBURG, Florida- What happened? Albert Suárez pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing just four hits and retiring 13 of the last 14 batters he faced. He left with a 1-0 lead and nobody on in the last of the seventh.
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Cionel Pérez replaced him and allowed a double and a single to tie the game at 1. Craig Kimbrel walked the leadoff batter in the eighth and eventually loaded the bases, and the Tampa Bay Rays pushed across the winning run on a sacrifice fly to defeat the Orioles, 2-1, on Sunday.
Anthony Santander hit his 35th home run, tying a club record for switch-hitters, but after that, the offense did little. They had nine hits, three by Gunnar Henderson, including an eighth-inning double, but didn’t score.
Pérez gave up the double to José Caballero and the RBI single by Dylan Carlson.
Kimbrel, who has apparently lost his job as the team’s closer, walked Brandon Lowe, struck out Wandy Diaz before walking Christopher Morel. After a double steal, manager Brandon Hyde walked Josh Lowe intentionally to load the bases.
Christopher Mead’s fly ball to right scored Brandon Lowe, and the Orioles didn’t score in the ninth.
The Orioles fell back into a first-place tie with the New York Yankees for the American League lead after the Yankees’ 8-7 win over the Texas Rangers.
After splitting their 10 games in Cleveland, Toronto and Tampa Bay, the Orioles return home on Tuesday to face Washington.
“Good games, bad games,” Hyde said. “Today, we scored one run. We had our opportunities to score more. Make it really tough on ourselves to try to win a 1-0 game there, with a few of our guys not available out of the ‘pen today. But we gave ourselves a shot. The games we won, we played really well, and the games we lost, we could have done a lot of better things.”
Coby Mayo struck out in both his at-bats and is hitless with 10 strikeouts in 15 at-bats to begin his career.
Why did Hyde remove Suárez? After throwing 94 pitches and a career-high 6 2/3 innings, Hyde pulled Suárez for Pérez, and Caballero hit for Ben Rortvedt.
“Well, if they pinch-hit, it’s two outs with nobody on base and Cionel’s got great stuff,” Hyde said. “Made a poor pitch there to start the inning there with a double, and then, a bloop single after that. Cionel is going to continue to pitch in big spots for us.”
On Tuesday night in Toronto, Suárez was an emergency starter when Grayson Rodriguez suffered right lat/teres discomfort as he began to prepare for his start.
“He threw 77 pitches last time and there’s two outs in the seventh inning and we felt like we were pushing him, honestly, in that seventh inning,” Hyde said. “He got two great outs and gave the ball to Cionel.”
With Rodriguez on the 15-day injured list, Suárez moved back from the bullpen to the rotation, where he’s spent much of the season.
“Just a great performance by him,” Hyde said. “He put up zeroes. He’s just such a pro. With the ‘pen kind of the way we were today and going that deep, he gave us a great chance.”
Suárez isn’t the type to question a manager’s decision about relieving him.
“I don’t control that,” he said. “I only control what I can do on the mound. For me, just do what is the best to help the team.
The 34-year-old didn’t feel tired.
“Every time I’m out there, I feel like I can keep going,” he said. “It doesn’t matter. Sometimes, maybe I’m really tired. But in my mind, I’m always thinking I can keep going.”
What’s wrong with Kimbrel? Kimbrel had a difficult stretch in late April and early May when he allowed six runs in five games, but rebounded nicely and didn’t allow an earned run from May 10th-June 19th.
He followed that with seven more scoreless outings until he gave up three runs in the Orioles’ exciting win on July 14th, the day before the All-Star break.
Kimbrel, who has 440 lifetime saves and 23 this season, hasn’t had one since July 7th and has apparently been supplanted by Seranthony Dominguez as closer.
“Well, the leadoff walk doesn’t help,” Hyde said. “And then, you’ve got to be able to hold runners better than that. He left a ball in the middle part of the plate to Mead. He hadn’t been out there in four days, maybe a little bit rusty. The leadoff walks are going to hurt.”
Kimbrel, who’s always forthright after a bad performance, said it’s a troubling time.
“It’s been a challenge,” he said. “The challenge has been pretty apparent, throwing the ball over the plate when needed to. Consistency. I would say overall, there’s times my stuff has played and gotten me through some things, but all in all, my consistency has just been really terrible, and when you’re inconsistent, you put guys on base and things happen. That’s what happened today.”
His previous three outings had been scoreless, though none were in high-leverage situations.
“Going through those stretches there’s still times where my consistency is off, you know?” Kimbrel said. “Still walking guys, putting guys on. Just the crispness isn’t there. Getting ahead of guys and walking them. That’s something that I shouldn’t be doing out there. That’s something I’ve been running into.”
Kimbrel allowed four stolen bases, including that crucial double steal.
“I mean, it’s huge,” he said. “That puts them in scoring position. They’re at third base where a fly ball scores them, like it did. Yeah, just definitely narrows the margin for error and that’s what it did.”
Is there an update on Jorge Mateo? Infielder Jorge Mateo, who’s on the 60-day injured list with an elbow injury, traveled with the team to St. Petersburg, and the Orioles say that the next steps in his treatment plan will be determined by an upcoming doctor’s appointment.
How has Jiménez adapted to the Orioles? Designated hitter Eloy Jiménez has had a hot start to his Orioles career. Since joining the Orioles on August 1st, Jimenez has gone 12-for-24.
“We love getting new players,” co-hitting coach Ryan Fuller said. “We don’t waste time. We make presentations from Day One and we say: ‘Here’s what you’re doing well. Here’s where we think we can help.’
“We’ve never had a guy say, ‘No, let me do my thing.’ They all come here. They understand we’re a winning ballclub and the guys around them, too. They want to make adjustments. Day One with Eloy, we sat down and said, ‘Here’s what we see. Let’s go to work.’
“It works really well when you match up their plan with what they want to do. He wants to hit the ball in the air more often. He hits the ball extremely hard. He’s working really hard in the cage every day and while we make those adjustments, we told him: ‘Keep getting hits.’ Make it look good out there until he starts elevating it a little bit more.”
How can you explain Santander’s hot streak? Santander tied Ken Singleton for the club record for most homers by a switch-hitter. Singleton also hit 35 home runs in 1979.
Santander has 25 home runs since June 1st.
“Tony has been notorious for kind of a slower start and then ramping up as he goes,” Fuller said. “The work is outstanding, and the work that goes on outside of the field is what propels him to have that success on the field. He watches the pitcher’s last three starts before every single game. He’s looking for the one or two pitches that he will only get.
“Instead of, ‘Man, he throws a fastball 50 percent,’ he’s looking at the changeup in a 2-1 count that he throws five percent, and he’ll be sitting on that pitch. Just a really, really smart hitter. Takes care of his body extremely well. I think that’s part of it, too.
“He’s a little bit stronger, a little bit more confident in there, and then when he starts rolling, it’s so fun to watch. There’s nothing distinctly different, no major changes. His preparation is elite and when he does that, he gives himself a really good chance to be successful, and he has been.”
What does it mean? It’s going to be hard to find spots for Kimbrel to pitch well and for Hyde to have confidence in him, but the future Hall of Famer needs to pitch well for the Orioles to advance in the postseason.
What’s the word? “Just throw the ball over the plate. Going out there feeling good and getting guys out. It’s pretty simple.”-Kimbrel on how to get back to his former dominance.
What’s the stat of the day? 7. Suárez leads American League starters with seven scoreless starts.
“I didn’t know that, so, I mean, that just tells me that I need to stay aggressive and trust my stuff and just keep pitching,” he said.
What’s going on in the minor leagues? Last year’s, No. 1 draft choice, outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr, is being promoted to Double-A Bowie from High-A Aberdeen. MASNsports.com was first with the news that was confirmed by an industry source.
What’s next? The Orioles are off on Monday and begin a two-game series with the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night. Trevor Rogers (2-10, 4.71) will face Jake Irvin (8-10, 3.76) at 6:35 p.m.
Call for questions: Most weekdays, I’ll be answering at least one Orioles question. Please send yours to: [email protected]