Throughout 2022, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde routinely pulled Tyler Wells before he truly wanted to. Three years removed from last pitching as a starter — losing a season each to Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery, the coronavirus pandemic and time in Baltimore’s bullpen as a Rule 5 draftee — Wells faced strict limitations in each outing.

Consider him unleashed. In Baltimore’s 6-2 victory to take a series from the Boston Red Sox, Wells followed his career-high seven innings last week against the Detroit Tigers with his first major league outing of 100 pitches.

Wells’ 102 offerings were not only seven more than he had thrown in any outing since arriving in the majors in 2021, but also the most of his professional career, which began in 2017. He hadn’t reached triple figures in any outing since August 2018 in a start for the Minnesota Twins’ Double-A team.

Wells was not particularly efficient in reaching that benchmark, with those pitches taking him into but not through the sixth inning. But backed by early offense, he pitched effectively to give the Orioles (16-8) their first series victory in three tries against an American League East team.

Baltimore’s eighth victory in nine games also left the team tied for its most wins before the end of April in franchise history with four games left to play in the month.

Wells won’t pitch in any of them after Wednesday’s 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball. The Orioles provided him a first-inning run as Cedric Mullins singled, went to third on an error and scored on Anthony Santander’s sacrifice fly. Wells gave that run back on Masataka Yoshida’s solo shot, but after a walk, he retired the next 10 Boston batters.

Baltimore’s, meanwhile, pieced together a three-run fourth. Adam Frazier, Ryan O’Hearn and Ramón Urías — their Nos. 6, 7 and 8 hitters — opened the frame with consecutive singles. After Terrin Vavra bunted, Mullins managed a run-scoring infield single on a ball that deflected off second baseman Enmanuel Valdez’s glove with the infield drawn in, and Adley Rutschman followed with a sacrifice fly.

The score remained 4-1 until the sixth, when Alex Verdugo doubled with one out and scored a batter later when Justin Turner singled, ending Wells’ afternoon. Left-hander Danny Coulombe got the last out of the sixth before the Orioles added a run on Santander’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly. Baltimore had five combined sacrifice flies and bunts in the game.

Coulombe allowed hits to two of the first three batters in the seventh, prompting manager Brandon Hyde to turn to breakout setup man Yennier Cano. The sinkerballer stranded Coulombe’s runners then recorded the first two outs in the eighth to give him 24 straight batters retired to open the season, matching Fred Holdsworth’s 1976 franchise record. On his next pitch, he hit Turner on the elbow, ending the streak before he got Yoshida to ground out.

Urías’ career-high fourth hit opened the eighth, and McKenna recorded his second of the day off Baltimore’s bench, an RBI double. That insurance run meant it wasn’t a save situation as Félix Bautista pitched the ninth, but he managed a scoreless frame despite allowing the first two hitters to reach base.

This story will be updated.

Orioles at Tigers

Thursday, 6:40 p.m.

TV: MASN2, MLB Network

Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM

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