The 2023 Orioles have shown a knack for early success. They continued it Thursday by coming through late.
Baltimore rallied with five runs in the seventh inning to defeat the Detroit Tigers, 7-4, to open a four-game series and 10-game road trip. The victory improved the Orioles to 9-0 in series openers, and at 17-8, they have the most wins before the end of April of any team in franchise history.
These Orioles are the seventh iteration to win at least 17 of their first 25 games, with the club’s 1966 and 1970 World Series champions among the previous six.
It appeared for much of Thursday’s contest they would not join those ranks. Kyle Gibson provided the shortest of his six starts as an Oriole, giving up three runs in 4 1/3 innings. After Baltimore got two runs back when Joey Ortiz — the organization’s No. 7 prospect promoted before Thursday’s game — hit a two-run single for his first major league knock in the fifth, the Tigers (9-15) doubled the margin in the sixth when Bryan Baker inherited loaded bases from Cionel Pérez and walked in a run.
In the top half of the frame, Ryan Mountcastle’s season-plus of poor luck continued with right fielder Kerry Carpenter robbing him of what might have been a go-ahead home run.
But the Orioles broke through in the seventh. Ortiz, robbed of what would’ve been his first hit in the third on Akil Baddoo’s diving catch in left, came up with two in scoring position for the second time and again was productive; he joined Don Baylor (1970) as the only Orioles to drive in at least three runs in a major league debut with his sacrifice fly.
Cedric Mullins tied the game on a triple, then scored the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly from Adley Rutschman. After Mountcastle walked, Anthony Santander punctuated the frame with a home run, only his second after leading the team with 33 in 2022.
The Orioles were in position to rally thanks to the pitching staff’s ability to limit damage. Detroit was 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position, with the one hit being Eric Haase’s two-run single off Gibson in the third; Gibson had previously limited hitters to 1-for-24 in those situations.
His outing opened with consecutive singles, but Gibson retired the next three Tigers. Detroit loaded the bases with no outs in the second, benefited by a grounder to third where Ramón Urías’ throw to Ortiz at second came too late for the Orioles to get any outs, even as Haase believed he was out and began to jog off the field. A run-scoring double play from former Oriole Jonathan Schoop accounted for the inning’s only run.
Ceding to Mike Baumann with two on and one out in the fifth, Gibson failed to complete that frame for the first time. But Baumann stranded both runners, having allowed one run in 14 2/3 innings since his permanent conversion to the bullpen.
On the opposite end of bullpen success is Pérez, a key left-hander for the 2022 Orioles who has struggled thus far. A hit batsman opened the sixth, and after striking out Schoop, Pérez issued back-to-back walks before manager Brandon Hyde brought in Baker. Pérez has allowed 27 base runners in 10 innings this season.
Baker sandwiched the run-scoring walk around two outs, and after Baltimore took the lead, he, Keegan Akin and Félix Bautista followed with scoreless innings. Bautista walked the bases loaded before striking out three to record his sixth save.
The Orioles’ bullpen, which entered the day with baseball’s third-best relief ERA, has a 1.28 ERA in the past 13 games, of which Baltimore has won 11.
This story will be updated.
Orioles at Tigers
Friday, 6:40 p.m.
TV: MASN2
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
()