Suárez, Mullins lead Orioles to bounce-back 5-3 win over Red Sox

The 34-year-old starter was impressive once again while the O’s offense was led by the red hot center fielder.

After getting shellacked to begin the series, the Orioles bounced back in impressive fashion on Tuesday night. Led by Albert Suárez on the mound and Cedric Mullins at the plate, the O’s topped the Red Sox 5-3 at Fenway Park.

The Orioles offense has had some well-documented struggles in recent months. Tonight’s performance was not their finest on the season as they went just 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left nine runners on base. However, they did manage to reach the magic number of five runs scored, collected 10 hits, and walked four times. All in all, an encouraging day at the office.

Cedric Mullins got things started with a bang in the first inning. Batting second, the resurgent Mullins took a Kutter Crawford fastball and lifted it into the air at a ridiculous 44 degree launch angle. It traveled just 334 feet and had an expected batting average of .030. But because this game was played at Fenway Park, it still snuck inside the Pesky Pole to give the O’s an early 1-0 lead.

That wasn’t all Mullins would do on this night. The O’s center fielder must have eaten his Wheaties this morning because in the third inning he smacked his second home run of the game. This one was a no-doubter as Mullins laced a 407-foot fly ball deep into the Boston night, driving in Anthony Santander in the process. That pushed the Birds up 3-0 after three innings.

It was a nice cushion for starting pitcher Albert Suárez, who bounced back from a wobble in his previous outing to impress once again tonight.

Through the first three innings, Suárez kept the Red Sox offense off the board, dancing around a walk and two hits to that point. They did finally break through in the fourth inning on a Triston Casas double to bring in Connor Wong, trimming the O’s lead to 3-1. But that is all they would get against the 34-year-old hurler.

Suárez was dicing up the Red Sox hitters for much of the evening. His whiff rate was an impressive 40% across all of his offerings, which allowed him to pile up eight strikeouts while limiting his walks. The veteran continues to be such an impressive force on this roster, and he has done so out of absolutely nowhere. Maybe these Orioles would be a decent team without him, but I certainly wouldn’t want to find out. He has been extremely important to keeping them afloat.

The O’s offense got back to work in the fifth inning. They loaded the bases with two outs as Adley Rutschman strode to the plate. Rutschman has been under the microscope for a while because his stats have noticeably sagged in the season’s second half. The confidence that was once had with Rutschman in the batter’s box has nearly evaporated. But the backstop came through here as he poked a single into left field, driving in Santander and Gunnar Henderson to make it 5-1 to the good guys.

With Suárez out of the game, the O’s bullpen took over to begin the seventh inning. Cionel Pérez was the first to trot in, and he got the job done, going three up and three down.

Brandon Hyde stuck with Pérez for the eighth, something of an eyebrow-raiser but understandable with Jarren Duran and Rafael Devers due up. Duran would single and Devers would fly out before Pérez passed the ball to Yennier Cano. It was a topsy-turvy night for the set-up man. He struck out the first batter he fast but then walked Tyler O’Neill, served up an RBI double to Masataka Yoshida and balked in another run before getting out of the inning with the O’s advantage down to 5-3.

Seranthony Domínguez came on to get the save, and did so in relatively easy fashion. The hard-throwing righty struck out his first two batters and then allowed a single to nine hitter Ceddanne Rafaela. That was momentarily frustrating, but Domínguez made quick work of lead-off hitter Duran to wrap up the road win.

It was a clean win for the O’s. The offense was…fine. Not good, exactly, but fine. Suárez was fantastic yet again. This guy has to be in the postseason rotation. Even if Grayson Rodriguez gets healthy in time, right? Cano was shaky, but Pérez and Domínguez gave a confidence boost. While the struggles of the entire team are evident these last few months, it’s clear that the pieces of a team capable to go on a deep run are still in there.

In other good news, the Yankees lost! That means the Orioles are back within half a game of the AL East lead. It’s all going to come down to that series at Yankee Stadium in a couple weeks, isn’t it? We should all be prepared for the emotional toll those games will have.

Or maybe the Orioles could just keep on winning? That would be fine too. Dean Kremer (7-9, 4.27 ERA) will attempt to do his part on Wednesday. He starts against Nick Pivetta (5-10, 4.38 ERA). First pitch is 7:10 from Fenway.