ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Ramón Urías has been written off many times, mostly by casual onlookers, but there’s a reason the Orioles front office has stuck by the third baseman despite the influx of young talent that has risen in Baltimore in recent seasons.
Urías doesn’t warrant the everyday playing time he earned in 2022 — his .691 on-base-plus-slugging percentage won’t do it — but he’s on the major league roster for a reason. And, even with the promotion of infield prospect Coby Mayo, Urías remains in the plans.
He found himself starting Saturday because Mayo is going through the anticipated scuffles of a first-time major leaguer, and Urías made the most of another chance. In a tie game in the eighth inning, Urías cranked a two-run home run to center field that was the decisive blow in a 7-5 win against the Tampa Bay Rays.
“He came through in a big way,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “Huge homer for us.”
The Orioles became the first team in Major League Baseball to reach 70 wins this season. They hold a one-game lead over the New York Yankees in the American League East.
Before Urías went deep, infield prospect Jackson Holliday worked a nine-pitch walk. Holliday’s career is just beginning, and his fifth homer in a 10-game span since returning from the minors shows how meteoric that rise might be.
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Urías is hanging on. But moments such as Saturday’s two-run shot, when he jumped all over left-hander Colin Poche’s middle-middle fastball, are why Urías is, indeed, hanging on.
“I just gotta compete,” Urías said. “It’s not like it’s given to me. I still have to perform on the field and help the team win.”
Baltimore had jumped out to the lead in the first inning with an RBI double from catcher Adley Rutschman and a two-run single from Ryan Mountcastle. Holliday’s long blast off Tyler Alexander — his first in a left-on-left matchup — provided a four-run edge. Holliday said he’s faced Alexander in Triple-A a few times, “so I have a little bit of an idea how he liked to work, and to put a good swing on it was nice.”
“I’m not trying to hit homers. I’m just trying to hit the ball hard on the barrel,” Holliday said. “Just trying to hit the ball hard and, wherever it goes, it just happens to be going over the fence at a pretty high rate right now.”
But that lead whittled away when right-hander Corbin Burnes hit a rough patch in an otherwise quality start.
Burnes cruised through the first four innings without allowing a hit, but once Josh Lowe singled in the fifth, a long-standing issue for Burnes exposed itself once more. Lowe stole second. He reached third on José Caballero’s soft infield single — which Urías bobbled at third base before he could throw to first — and then Caballero stole second.
The second time, Burnes pitched out to Rutschman in an attempt to nab Caballero. But the throw was wide and skipped into center field, allowing Lowe to trot home.
The free running against Burnes has been a theme. He has allowed 33 stolen bases this season, which is already tied for the third most allowed by an Orioles pitcher in a single season. Burnes prefers to focus on the batter at the plate rather than runners behind him, but the two steals generated one run.
Burnes said, when he puts too much focus on runners, his mechanics can falter, leading to more runners on base. But he acknowledged that the steals are “something I’m going to see more and more of, especially when we get to postseason, so I’ve just got to do a good job of putting myself in good spots to help slow it down a little bit.”
Two more scored once Alex Jackson and Jonny DeLuca hit consecutive two-out doubles that narrowed the Rays’ deficit to one run.
Even with those scores off Burnes, however, the Orioles had ample opportunities to add on. In the fifth inning, Gunnar Henderson singled and Rutschman doubled — part of Rutschman’s first three-hit game since June 21. But, with no outs, the Orioles stranded them in scoring position with outs from Mountcastle, Cedric Mullins and Austin Slater.
The Orioles had two on with two outs in the sixth but stranded the pair. And Rutschman led off the seventh with his third hit, a single, but three straight strikeouts from Mountcastle, Mullins and Slater ended that rally too.
“We had a chance there in that fifth to kind of break the game open,” Hyde said. “We had second and third and nobody out and didn’t score. That kind of gave them a little bit of momentum, it seemed like.”
And the lead vanished in the seventh, when right-hander Burch Smith allowed a solo homer to Caballero.
But Urías handed the advantage right back in the eighth, and another run scored when Mountcastle recorded his third RBI of the game. From there, the Orioles held on despite an eighth-inning rally from the Rays.
Right-hander Yennier Cano allowed two baserunners, and left-hander Cionel Pérez promptly walked two batters to bring home a run. In the ninth, Hyde turned to right-hander Seranthony Domínguez rather than Craig Kimbrel for the save situation.
Kimbrel hasn’t recorded a save since July 7, and he hasn’t pitched in a save situation since July 25. Hyde said he’s hoping to give him lower-stress innings “to get Kimbrel going a little bit.” Instead, Domínguez earned his first save as an Oriole since arriving ahead of the trade deadline.
Domínguez has closed before. He earned 16 saves as a rookie in 2018, and he sporadically closed games for the Philadelphia Phillies in the years since. If needed, he’s ready.
“I feel good in that role, if someday I go back to that role,” Domínguez said. “I think I can do my job, because I know myself, I believe in myself and I can tell you, I’m happy to be here and happy to compete.”
