LOS ANGELES — This wasn’t an opening of the floodgates by any means. So often lately, the Orioles have struggled to mount much of an offensive eruption, and with a pitching staff that is injury-riddled and inconsistent, there hasn’t been a formula for success.
But here, on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium, the Orioles managed with their three runs. They ran the risk of a late collapse, but with a fully rested bullpen behind left-handed starter Cole Irvin, it all worked out.
That hasn’t often been the case recently. Entering Tuesday, Baltimore was 9-40 when scoring three runs or fewer, an 18.4% win rate. They scored three runs or fewer for the seventh time in their last 10 games. But the Orioles faced off against another postseason-bound club in the Los Angeles Dodgers and eked out a win — their second of those seven games — by rolling with a fresh bullpen that pitched 4 2/3 innings of shutout ball.
Ryan O’Hearn and Ramón Urías provided the power to drive the Orioles to the 3-2 series-opening victory against the Dodgers. O’Hearn blasted his first homer since July 20 in the second inning against right-hander Jack Flaherty, and Urías continued a torrid two weeks with a two-run shot in the fifth.
With the win, the Orioles move to one game behind the New York Yankees for the American League East lead.
“I think we’re in a prime position to get hot,” Irvin said. “Got some good ball clubs that we’re facing here to end this month and we’re just trying to take care of business one day at a time. But we’ve seen it, being on the other end, this is a good time to get hot. So, I think we’re pretty excited about the group we have in here and what we can bring to the table every night.”
Urías said he has never felt better than this, and the swing he unleashed in the fifth inning Tuesday was another example of the hot streak on which the infielder has found himself. With Urías’ homer, the Orioles now have an MLB-high nine players with at least 10 homers.
And in his last 11 games, Urías has 11 hits with 13 RBIs. He has driven in five of Baltimore’s last six runs.
“He’s been our offense the last couple weeks. Really good at-bats,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “We’re not swinging the bat great right now and he’s carrying us a little bit offensively in some of these wins, and he’s playing with a lot of energy right now. He’s playing great.”
Urías can’t put a finger on why, exactly, he is breaking out at the plate. He thought his experience might be part of it. Whatever has led to the hot streak, it’s coming at a good time. Urías is helping to cover for the absence of infielder Jordan Westburg, who has a fractured hand. And O’Hearn will be relied on even more heavily while first baseman Ryan Mountcastle recovers from a sprained left wrist.
The injuries have stacked up; now the Orioles need other players to step up.
“I feel amazing,” Urías said. “I feel good for helping the team. I think we all go through ups and downs during the season, because it’s so long. Just happy to have the win tonight.”
Irvin fell into a similar patch of trouble as other Orioles pitchers have of late when he allowed a two-out rally in the third. Shohei Ohtani singled for the second time off Irvin, and after a walk, Teoscar Hernández plated the Dodgers’ second run.
But Irvin avoided a crooked number against him, and right-hander Matt Bowman bailed Irvin out of trouble in the fifth when the reliever entered with two runners on and one out. The 33-year-old Bowman, who was promoted last week, continued a stellar start to his Orioles career. He escaped the fifth and pitched a clean sixth to extend his streak to 12 straight batters retired.
“We’re not scoring a ton of runs right now,” Hyde said. “We faced some really good arms tonight and just had a tough time scoring runs. We get the lead and then Bowman, in an area we’ve struggled, kind of that middle part of the game, runners in scoring position, finding the right guy in that sixth, seventh inning where the game is kind of in balance. We’ve had a tough time cycling through guys and Bowman did a great job tonight.”
Of course, the Orioles could have avoided a tight-rope situation had they cashed in one of their several opportunities with two runners on base. They stranded two runners in the third, sixth and seventh innings.
The sixth was especially egregious. Gunnar Henderson singled and Anthony Santander walked before O’Hearn and Cedric Mullins flew out and Eloy Jiménez struck out. In the seventh, Henderson slammed his bat when he popped out to end the threat.
After Bowman, however, the bullpen continued to throw zeroes. Left-hander Cionel Pérez retired four hitters; right-hander Yennier Cano finished the eighth without incident. And right-hander Seranthony Domínguez, in his new closing role, worked around two baserunners to earn the save.
The Orioles asked a lot of their pitching staff, as they have throughout August. This time, the pitching staff picked up for a lagging batting order.
A potential bullpen addition
The Orioles agreed to a deal with right-hander Nick Anderson, a source with direct knowledge of the situation said, after the reliever opted out of his minor league contract with the Dodgers.
It’s not yet apparent whether Anderson’s deal is a minor or major league agreement. Either way, he figures to provide bullpen help at some point. Anderson held a 4.04 ERA in 37 games for the Kansas City Royals this season before he was released in July. He joined the Los Angeles organization and opted out of his deal Tuesday.
In 4 1/3 innings with Triple-A Oklahoma City, he surrendered one earned run, walked three and struck out five.
Anderson has experience against the Orioles. He pitched for the Tampa Bay Rays between 2019 and 2021, and his best year came in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, when he recorded a 0.55 ERA in 16 games.
