Cole Irvin’s return to Oakland went well for the left-hander, but it took an extra inning for it to be good for his team.
While the former Athletics starter pitched five solid innings, his offense needed a 10th frame to decide Saturday night’s contest. After failing to score for the previous six innings, Baltimore’s bats broke the game open in the final one, plating five runs en route to a 7-2 victory.
“Total team at-bats,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “Just total team offense there in that inning.”
Six Orioles batters either reached base or drove in a run in the 10th as Baltimore improved to 9-5 in extra-inning games. Adley Rutschman led off with a walk against reliever Adrián Martínez, and Ryan Mountcastle, who extended his on-base streak to 25 earlier in the game, followed with a go-ahead RBI single to score automatic runner Adam Frazier. After Gunnar Henderson was hit by a pitch, Jordan Westburg drove in Rutschman with a sacrifice fly and Austin Hays brought home Mountcastle with a fielder’s choice ground ball. James McCann then provided two pivotal insurance runs with a two-run single to give the Orioles’ bullpen a large cushion.
“It was really up and down the lineup,” McCann said. “It was a walk by Rutschman, a big hit by Mounty, guys having quality at-bat after quality at-bat. It’s kind of just the way this team’s been operating all season long, honestly.”
Reliever Jacob Webb hit and walked the first two batters of the 10th, but the club’s newest bullpen addition struck out the next three batters for a scoreless inning. Aside from Shintaro Fujinami, another former Athletics pitcher whom the Orioles traded for, the Orioles’ bullpen was excellent for the second straight night.
The relief corps pitched four shutout frames in Friday night’s 9-4 win and allowed just one run in six innings Saturday. Fujinami allowed a solo homer in the sixth that tied the game, but Yennier Cano, Cionel Pérez, Félix Bautista and Webb followed with scoreless outings. Bautista (8-2) earned the win with a scoreless ninth, and the five-run explosion prevented Hyde from using his All-Star closer for a second inning as he has several times this season in extras.
“Our pitching won us the game tonight,” Hyde said. “Cole Irvin was outstanding going five innings, everybody else after did a really nice job. Fuji just kind of hung that split, unfortunately, but had great stuff again. Pérez a huge out, Bautista does what he does, Cano one-plus [innings] and Webb there, just after kind of unraveled on him, kept his composure and threw a great 10th inning.”
Hays homered in the fourth to tie the game at one, and McCann remained hot with a solo homer two batters later that gave the Orioles a brief 2-1 lead. Hays’ long ball off Athletics starter Ken Waldichuk didn’t touch the ground, lodging itself into the left field foul pole. The left fielder has slumped since the All-Star break, but he’s perhaps started to break out of it with six extra-base hits in his past eight starts.
McCann, meanwhile, extended his hitting streak to eight games. Since the break, the backup catcher is slashing .378/.412/.600 — good for a 1.012 OPS — in 51 plate appearances.
Baltimore is 76-47 and 2 1/2 games up on the Tampa Bay Rays atop the American League standings. The Orioles will return to Baltimore with a winning record from their nine-game West Coast road trip after splitting their six games against the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners and taking the first two against Oakland.
“It was a great team win. We needed this one,” Irvin said. “Coming through with a series win on a long road trip is huge.”
Irvin solid in return to Oakland
Irvin wasn’t sharp to begin his first start back at Oakland Coliseum since being traded to Baltimore in January. He hit the leadoff batter and issued a walk to the second before ending the inning scoreless. Aledmys Díaz then led off the second with a solo home run to left field to give Oakland, losers of 26 of its past 35, a 1-0 lead.
After a one-out single and hit by pitch in the third, Irvin settled in, retiring eight of his final nine batters. He was pulled after just 77 pitches in five innings because the start was just his second since rejoining the rotation. After tossing five scoreless against the Seattle Mariners last weekend, he continued his recent success by scattering four hits and striking out three in five innings of one-run ball Saturday.
“I mean, I was comfortable. I know this ballpark well,” Irvin said. “I made 62 starts in that uniform. I know this field, I know how this ballpark plays. There’s only a couple pitches I’d like to have back in that outing, just feeling good.”
Irvin, who was one of Oakland’s best starters in 2021 and 2022, pitched against his former team in April amid his early season struggles. He surrendered six runs in four innings and was optioned the following day to Triple-A Norfolk, where he spent most of the next two months rediscovering his form.
Since he returned June 10, Irvin has a 3.00 ERA and 1.20 WHIP in 45 innings. In his past seven starts, he’s allowed just eight runs in 33 2/3 innings for a 2.14 ERA. He’s given up one or zero runs in six of those seven outings.
“I feel a lot more confident,” Irvin said. “I feel like getting into the games, reliever or starter, I’m going to give the team a proper chance. I didn’t feel like I was doing that early on, I was really frustrated with myself. And so, to a man, had to make some adjustments, and now I feel really confident each time I go out. Each time they give me a chance to take the ball, I’m leaving nothing behind.
“I’m having a lot of fun with this ball club. All that matters now is winning and winning a lot.”
Around the horn
- Before Saturday’s game, the Orioles placed outfielder Aaron Hicks on the 10-day injured list with a lower back strain. Hicks returned from the IL on Monday after nursing a left hamstring strain, went 2-for-3 against the Padres and was removed with the back injury. Hyde said Hicks’ recovery wasn’t coming along as quickly as the club hoped. His IL stint is retroactive to Wednesday. The veteran has been shut down from doing baseball activity, and Hyde expects him to be out for a “couple weeks.”
- Right-hander Mychal Givens, who Baltimore designated for assignment last weekend, was placed on unconditional release waivers Saturday. The Orioles signed Givens for $5 million in the offseason. He pitched just four ineffective innings for them, spending most of his season on the injured list.
- Outfielder Anthony Santander didn’t play Saturday after being removed from Friday’s game. Hyde said the switch-hitter has a sore back and will “hopefully” be back in the lineup soon. “We’ve got a lot of bad backs,” Hyde said. “Heat pads are on the backs right now. It’s the middle of August, and these guys have played a lot of baseball. We’ve got bumps and bruises everywhere.”
- Starting pitcher Tyler Wells threw 27 pitches in two innings Saturday for Double-A Bowie, allowing one run on a solo homer. The shorter outing was planned as the Orioles continue to manage the right-hander’s workload during what Hyde called a “reset” in the minors. Wells, the Orioles’ best starter in the first half of the season, has pitched three times for the Baysox since he was optioned in late July.
- Seth Johnson, a right-hander the Orioles acquired in the Trey Mancini trade last summer, pitched his first game for the organization Saturday in the Florida Complex League. Johnson, who underwent Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery before he was traded, recorded a scoreless inning with two strikeouts. The 40th overall pick in the 2019 draft, Johnson had a 2.81 ERA in 137 2/3 innings with 172 strikeouts in the Rays’ farm system, reaching High-A in 2022 before the elbow injury. Baseball America ranks him as the Orioles’ 20th-best prospect.
Orioles at Athletics
Sunday, 4:07 p.m.
TV: MASN
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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