BALTIMORE—The Orioles ended the first half of the season with five straight wins, and they’ve begun the second half with three more. The Orioles’ eighth consecutive win featured an excellent start from Kyle Bradish, who worked 7 1/3 scoreless innings and a bullpen without Yennier Cano and Félix Bautista allowing four runs in the ninth.
The Orioles hung on for a 5-4 win over the Miami Marlins before an announced crowd of 30,761 at Camden Yards on Sunday.
“It was a little too dicey at the end,” manager Brandon Hyde said.
The Orioles (57-35) swept Miami (53-42), their sixth sweep of the season, but it wasn’t easy. Hyde had used Cano and Bautista on Friday and Saturday nights and wasn’t going to pitch them in a third consecutive game.
After Eduard Bazardo allowed three runs, Danny Coulombe allowed an RBI double to Dane Myers, who had three hits. With the tying run on second base, the major league’s leading hitter, Luis Arraez, was up. Arraez, who’s hitting .380, had four hits on Saturday but was hitless in five at-bats.
“That’s not the guy you want to see come in scoring position with two outs and the tying run,” Hyde said.
Hyde did consider walking Arraez with catcher Nick Fortes, a .207 hitter, on deck.
“There was the thought in my head. I considered it,” Hyde said. “Wanted to be careful with him and then got to two strikes. Danny’s got such good numbers this year, you trusted it at that point … I’ve got [Mike] Baumann ready, but Baumann I did not want to pitch today. Danny tried to be careful with Luis. The ball he hit to left was a pretty good pitch to hit.”
Arraez lined to Austin Hays to finally end the game.
“Tough guy to pitch to, but give Danny credit for getting him out there,” Hyde said.
Coulombe’s first major league save came in his 233rd game, a nerve-wracking one.
“You can’t think of it that way. You just go out and execute a pitch at a time,” Coulombe said. “If you think about the situation, the situation is probably a little too big for you. I knew the big two [Cano, Bautista] were down today, so I knew this was a possibility.”
Arraez and Coulombe played together with Minnesota the previous three seasons and have a good relationship.
“He’s such a tough at-bat,” Coulombe said. “I’ve seen it a million times. Maybe just throw it right down the middle and see what he’s going to do with it because he’s not going to swing and miss. He swung and missed twice, and I was like, ‘What’s going on here?’”
Bradish (6-4) allowed three hits in 7 1/3 innings, the Orioles’ longest start of the season. He struck out eight, walked one and hit a batter. He has thrown 15 1/3 scoreless innings, the second longest streak of his career.
“Going into it I knew I had to go deep in the game because [Cano and Bautista] weren’t available,” Bradish said. “We have other guys in the bullpen, so I didn’t have a problem handing it over.”
He allowed Garrett Cooper’s leadoff double in the fourth, and singles to Myers in the fifth and eighth. He was removed after Myers’ single.
Bryan Baker recorded the final two outs of the eighth.
Marlins manager Skip Shumaker made the questionable decision to use Steven Okert, who recorded four outs on Saturday night, as the opener. Okert (3-1) recorded just one out and left trailing, 3-0.
Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman began the first with doubles, and Anthony Santander hit his 17th home run, and it was 3-0. After Austin Hays singled, and Ryan O’Hearn popped out to third, Shumaker summoned George Soriano.
Soriano retired his first nine batters before Ramón Urías walked, and he hit Colton Cowser and Adam Frazier with pitches to loaded the bases. James McCann’s bouncer to short was mishandled by Joey Wendle for an error, scoring Urías. Henderson’s liner to right scored Cowser, and it was 5-0.
The Orioles looked as if they would record their third shutout heading to the ninth as Bradish watched.
“It got a little closer than I would have liked,” Bradish said. “We pulled out the win for a series sweep coming out of the break, so it’s huge.”
Note: The Orioles open a three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Grayson Rodriguez (2-2, 7.35) will be recalled from Triple-A Norfolk to start against Emmel Sheehan (2-0, 4.35) on Monday night.
Minor league update: Leftfielder John Rhodes’ ninth-inning single gave Double-A Bowie a 6-5 win over Akron. Shortstop Jackson Holliday was 1-for-3 and has a .500 average in his first three games.
High-A Aberdeen infielder Max Wagner was removed from the IronBird’s lineup with lower back tightness. IronBirds catcher Creed Willems was removed with left shoulder discomfort. Aberdeen was held to three hits in a 2-1 loss to Wilmington. …
Designated hitter Noelberth Romero drove in two runs as Single-A Delmarva beat Salem, 6-4, in the resumption of their game suspended by rain on Friday night.
Question time: I’ll be answering Orioles questions next week. Please email them to: RichDubroff@BaltimoreBaseball.com.