Irvin falls apart, O’s lose fifth straight, 10-8 to Guardians

There was a lot of offense in this one, and too much of it came from Cleveland.

The Orioles’ losing streak was extended to five on Tuesday night, as Cole Irvin melted down and the Birds fell 10-8 in a slugfest with the visiting Cleveland Guardians.

It was a bad night for both starting pitchers. The two lefties, Irvin and Logan Allen got lit up by the opposing lineups. Allen allowed fewer runs (six, compared to Irvin’s eight), likely because his manager saved him from facing the Orioles lineup a third time. Cole Irvin went deeper (four innings, compared to Allen’s three), but that came after a nightmarish fourth inning in which his manager, foolishly, did allow him to turn over the Guardians lineup for a final time.

As you can imagine from that paragraph, the scoring was swift and frequent through the game’s first four frames.

The Guardians were off the line in the first inning with back-to-back, two-out doubles from José Ramírez and then David Fry to make it 1-0 right away.

Gunnar Henderson, the O’s clean-up hitter tonight, struck back in the bottom of the first inning with a two-run laser of a homer to drive in Ryan Mountcastle and make it 2-1 for the home team.

That lead was short-lived as Irvin got right back into trouble in the second. A lead-off single from Johnathan Rodriguez followed by a Bo Naylor double put two runners in scoring position with no outs. Gabriel Arias cashed in right away with a two-bagger of his own to drive in both runners ahead of him.

Cleveland nearly scored a third run in the inning when, with a runner on third and one out, Steve Kwan hit a grounder right at a drawn-in Henderson. The O’s shortstop fired home to retire the runner with plenty of room to spare.

Baltimore’s bats tied the score back at three in the bottom of the second. Jorge Mateo led off the frame with a triple and moseyed on home after a James McCann single.

Later in the inning, Ryan Mountcastle hit a long fly ball off the middle of the wall in centerfield. Tyler Freeman quickly gathered the ball and fired in towards cutoff man Andrés Giménez. McCann rounded third and headed for home. Giménez threw home, placing the ball into a perfect spot for catcher Bo Naylor to make the catch and apply the tag to an incoming McCann all in one move.

In the top half of the third, something rare happened. Irvin did allow a baserunner, but that runner would not actually cross home plate. It was something called a “scoreless inning,” apparently a rather common occurrence in the sport of baseball, but the first of its kind in this game. Something to note.

Anyway, the O’s got back to scoring in their half of the third. After a Henderson walk, Jordan Westburg doubled to left field to drive him in, giving the Birds a 4-3 lead. That lead would also be short-lived as the floodgates opened in the fourth inning.

With a runner on first base and no outs, Arias hit a dribbler in front of home plate. McCann, the O’s catcher in this game, sprung up to field it and made the questionable decision to throw to second instead of the easy out at first. His throw towards second base tailed to the first base side of the bag just a bit, forcing Jorge Mateo to drift with it, right into the path of the incoming base runner. The ball deflected away into the outfield and Mateo seemed to jam his wrist into the runner. That gave the Guardians two runners in scoring position and an injured infielder.

Fortunately, Mateo was examined by trainer Brian Ebel and remained in the game after a few practice catches. He did leave the game a bit later for a pinch hitter, but it does not appear that anything serious took place.

But Cleveland did add some insult to the (relatively minor) injury anyway. A pair of singles drove in both runners to make it 5-4. And then Ramírez delivered a three-run homer that seemed to have more carry than any baseball ever. MASN play-by-play man Kevin Brown thought that center fielder Colton Cowser was settling under it, only for the ball to land in the bullpen area.

Credit to the Orioles offense for doing their best to keep up with the Guardians all night. They opened the bottom of the fourth inning with a pair of solo homers from McCann and Cowser to make it 8-6.

That is where the bullpens took over and settled things for a little bit. Neither team scored in the fifth and sixth innings. Cleveland was also kept off the board in the seventh.

The O’s drew within a run in the bottom of the seventh, however, they should have done more. Singles from Henderson and Westburg followed up a walk from pinch hitter Ryan O’Hearn loaded the bases with no outs. Heston Kjerstad came to the plate as a sub for Mateo, but struck out. McCann followed (after Brandon Hyde contemplated a Cedric Mullins pinch hit), and hit a grounder to Ramírez at third. Although he was playing deep, Ramírez managed to make a good throw to Giménez at second, who in turn tossed to Arias at first for an inning-ending double play.

However, upon review it was revealed that Giménez had taken his foot off the bag at second a moment too soon. O’Hearn was now safe at second and Henderson had scored to keep the inning alive. But the O’s would do no more. Cowser hit a hard grounder up the middle, where shortstop Brayan Rocchio was waiting to end the frame.

The hope of an Orioles comeback was seemingly dashed in the top of the eighth inning when Yennier Cano became the only O’s reliever to have trouble on the night. He gave up a single, followed by a triple, and then another single—this one deflected off of Cano’s glove and past a diving Westburg—to score two more Cleveland runs and put them up 10-7 late in the game.

Anthony Santander wouldn’t go quietly as he smacked a solo homer in the bottom of the eighth to make it 10-8. It hurt just a tad that it came right after a Mountcastle double play, a fine example of how baseball can crush your soul from time to time.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Birds brought the tying run to the plate (in the form of Adley Rutschman to boot), but they were unable to do much against all-world closer Emmanuel Clase. Cedric Mullins pinch hit and hit a loopy double just over third base, but he would be stranded as the Orioles fell—for the fifth straight game—10-8.

Losing streaks stink. We can take some solace in the fact that the Yankees are getting spanked by the Mets as this is being written. So, the gap in the AL East should remain at two games. But it would have been neat to see the O’s actually take advantage of the Bombers dip in form rather than joining them in the gutter.

Irvin’s recent performances are worrying, albeit unsurprising. Most of his success with the Orioles has come when they can protect him a bit, and limit his exposure. That hasn’t been possible given the number of injuries in the pitching staff. Ideally, he would be a bullpen arm that can give them length, but it’s unclear who can take his place in the rotation until Dean Kremer is deemed healthy.

The bullpen, in general, was quite good despite being put in a tough spot. The team may have re-discovered something in Bryan Baker. He tossed two scoreless innings in this one and now has a 1.13 ERA on the season. The same may be true of Nick Vespi, who is finally getting a long look, mostly because they risk losing him if he is optioned again this season. The lefty’s ERA is 1.00 in the bigs this year.

In a way, this was a terrific game for the offense. You should win games in which you score eight runs, including four long balls. Westburg had four hits. Henderson was on base four times. There were good things here! But they also did not make the most of their opportunities. The team went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position, and it is a crime that they scored just one run in that seventh inning. That was hardly the main reason that the Orioles lost (see: Irvin, Cole), but it didn’t help.

The same is true of McCann’s decision to throw to second base in the fourth inning. Getting a second out there may have not made a difference. Irvin could have still imploded, but the cost/benefit analysis of keeping a runner out of scoring position that McCann did in his head in that moment seems flawed.

The Orioles will hope to avoid a second straight sweep on Wednesday night as these two teams go at it once again. Grayson Rodriguez (8-3, 3.82 ERA) will be on the bump to face Carlos Carrasco (3-6, 5.40 ERA). First pitch is 6:35 from Camden Yards.