It was looking as if all the momentum the Orioles built Friday night — when Anthony Santander hit a grand slam to help them come from behind to beat the Astros — was going to be wasted.
The Orioles had just three hits in the first five innings Saturday, never getting more than one man on base at a time. But, if this team learned anything Friday, it’s that it can handle the big moment.
That time came in the bottom of the sixth inning Saturday. Down 2-0 to Houston, Gunnar Henderson got a base hit. Santander followed with a strikeout looking on a low pitch that was out of the zone for the second out of the inning, much to the dismay of Santander and the dugout.
They were riled up and ready to strike. Eloy Jiménez hit a single, and Colton Cowser, making a name for himself as a heads-up baserunner, landed safely at first thanks to an incredible dive to load the bases.
“It’s kind of an unconventional thing to do; you aren’t really taught to do that,” Cowser said of the dive. “But instincts just took over.”
The stage was set for Jackson Holliday. The 20-year-old, on an 0-for-20 stretch, didn’t start the game against left-hander Framber Valdez, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde saying pregame that he hoped a day off would give him a chance to breathe.
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Holliday only got air for the first five innings, but apparently that was all he needed. Hyde pinch-hit him for Emmanuel Rivera, and Holliday came through, hitting a two-out, bases-loaded double. It gave the Orioles the 3-2 lead, which they held on to for the rest of the game.
“I think this is a testament to the kind of team we have in here, the battles, it competes, are never out of it,” Holliday said. “I think it’s real good momentum going into these next few years.”
Baltimore, after dropping the first game, now has a chance to win the series. More importantly, the Orioles inched closer to the Yankees in the American League East. They’re just half a game behind after New York fell to the Rockies.
This was the type of play the Orioles were known for before July hit and their season started to go downhill. No game was out of reach during the first half of the season or last year, when they won the AL East title. These past two games provided hope that they could be back to that style of play.
“When you’re not getting the big hit, you keep continually getting asked, ‘What’s wrong with runners in scoring position? You guys can’t get hits. Is there a drill that you can do?’” Hyde said. “There’s not a drill. It’s slowing the game down, honestly, and getting some confidence, and not trying to do too much. Hopefully, Santander’s hit last night, Jackson’s hit today, that keep-the-line-moving, both of those were those types of innings. We’ve been missing that, and hopefully we can continue to do that.”
They wouldn’t have even had a chance to jump back into the game if it hadn’t been for Albert Suárez, who pitched 5 2/3 innings, allowing just two runs. Both of those runs came on solo home runs, a leadoff homer from Jose Altuve in the first and one from Jeremy Peña in the sixth to end Suárez’s day.
The bullpen, for the second day in a row, held the Astros scoreless from there, Keegan Akin finishing the sixth and seventh, Yennier Cano the eighth and Seranthony Domínguez getting the save for the second game in a row.
This win also took Hyde trusting his young second baseman, even if the results as of late may have led him another way. Holliday’s first stretch in the majors, when he went 2-for-34 and was demoted after 10 games, wasn’t fun, but it taught him an important lesson. During that slump, he was trying too hard and not getting results.
This time, when he stepped up to the plate in the sixth inning, having not gotten a hit in a week, he did the opposite. He relaxed and didn’t try to lift the ball, instead focusing on getting the ball to the middle of the field. He did just that, taking the first pitch and lining it to right center, where it dropped between two outfielders.
The trust paid off. Now the Orioles have 31 more games to do it again.
“We keep talking about we are never out of it,” Cowser said. “Pitching kept us in it the last couple of games, and you know I think as an offense we are attacking their bullpen well when we need to.”
