The Orioles’ bullpen tossed six and a third scoreless to keep them in it as Jordan Westburg walked off the Diamondbacks in the 11th.
The Orioles’ offense never produced a big inning Saturday. Instead, it slowly chipped away at the Arizona Diamondbacks’ early leads before Jordan Westburg completed the comeback with a walk-off single in the bottom of the 11th inning, after the bullpen tossed 6 1/3 scoreless innings to ensure a 5-4 victory.
A parade of relievers allowed the Orioles enough time to erase 2-1 and 4-2 deficits, forcing the game to the 11th inning where Westburg led off with a single down the right field line that scored designated runner Colton Cowser from second. The RBI was Westburg’s second walk-off hit of the season after he put together the game-winning swing April 1 against the Kansas City Royals.
“We wanted to win that for our bullpen,” Westburg said. “Our bullpen came in and threw some big-time innings and got out of some jams there. So, I just figured the more opportunities we had to score runs, we were going to push one across as long as the bullpen kept it where they did.”
Baltimore’s bats produced plenty of their usual power, including home runs by Gunnar Henderson and Anthony Santander and three extra-base hits by Ryan Mountcastle. However, both long balls were solo shots and none of Mountcastle’s hits came with runners on base. The Orioles (26-12) settled for climbing their way back with one-run frames in the second, third, fifth and eighth before Westburg provided the decisive blow in extras.
“He’s just getting better and better — he and Gunnar,” manager Brandon Hyde said of Westburg. “Special player. This guy is going to be really good. This is his first full year in the big leagues and he’s doing a little bit of everything. How much better he’s gotten defensively at third base, second base, the at-bats he takes, he never takes a pitch off ever. He just battles every single pitch at the plate and can cover and hit the ball to all fields hard. Really impressed with him so far this year.”
Arizona got to Orioles starter John Means, making his second start of the season on six days’ rest, with a pair of two-run innings. Means retired the first eight batters he faced before Kevin Newman tripled off him in the third inning and designated hitter Ketel Marte hit a two-run home run for his second long ball in as many days.
Means ran into trouble again in the fifth, allowing two more runs to cross the plate before Hyde pulled him with two outs in the frame.
It marked just the sixth time in 28 games this season that an Orioles starting pitcher failed to complete six innings. Means was also the team’s first starter to allow four runs in a game since Albert Suárez on April 28, snapping the rotation’s streak of 10 straight games allowing three runs or fewer. While he avoided walking anybody and didn’t run the pitch count very high (89 pitches/60 strikes), Means forced Hyde’s hand when he couldn’t get out of a self-made jam in the top of the fifth.
After Heston Kjerstad made a sliding catch in left field to take a hit away from leadoff man Gabriel Moreno, Blaze Alexander singled and Newman doubled to bring pitching coach Drew French out for a mound visit. Means then hit Marte with his next pitch to load the bases. Corbin Carroll gave the Diamondbacks the lead back with a sacrifice fly and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. singled to make it 4-2 as Means left pitches over the heart of the plate to both.
“I think his stuff probably wasn’t quite as good as the first time out,” Hyde said. “I would expect him to be better next time, his command [be] a little bit better. It’s not easy that second time. I think the adrenaline kind of fuels you in that first time out and the second one — you pitch a big league game, you sit [six] days — it’s kind of challenging.”
Hyde then turned to the bullpen, which did well to keep the Orioles in it. Mike Baumann, who entered the game with a 4.73 ERA, got them out of trouble in the fifth and stayed in for two more innings, retiring seven of the eight hitters he faced. Keegan Akin set the Diamondbacks down in order for a clean eighth inning and Yennier Cano, pitching for the third time in four days, worked around a one-out walk by Eugenio Suárez to post a zero in the ninth. Danny Coulombe and Craig Kimbrel each navigated the designated runner with scoreless frames in the 10th and 11th, respectively.
“There’s so many good arms in this bullpen and guys have a ton of stuff and Hyde does an awesome job of putting guys in great situations and lining guys up with great matchups,” Baumann said. “These arms, they can do anything and the sky’s the limit.”
The Orioles’ bullpen has been a rotating carousel of high-leverage roles amid Craig Kimbrel’s struggles and temporary demotion from the closer job. Hyde admitted that Kimbrel pitching in the 11th “wasn’t how I drew it up” while he tries to get his veteran closer more comfortable, but he called the bullpen over the dugout phone beforehand to see if Kimbrel was up for it and “the answer I got on the phone was total pro, just fantastic.”
“Then he just went out and pitched awesome,” Hyde added.
Though it trailed for most of the game, Baltimore’s offense wouldn’t be kept quiet. Westburg also provided the Orioles’ first RBI of the day with a double to left-center in the second and Ryan O’Hearn produced a game-tying single an inning later. After Arizona pulled ahead again, Henderson’s 12th home run of the season — tying him with the Atlanta Braves’ Marcell Ozuna and Houston Astros’ Kyle Tucker for the MLB lead — and Santander’s third blast in his last five games evened up the game at 4 heading into the ninth.
Westburg finished the day 4-for-5 with his fifth stolen base of the season. He pushed his RBI total to 26, one back of Henderson for the Orioles’ team lead. The 25-year-old infielder raised his batting average to .301 and OPS to .867 with the performance.
With the win, the Orioles clinched a series victory over the defending National League pennant-winning Diamondbacks, who are 18-22 to begin the season. Baltimore will send Dean Kremer, who is coming off consecutive quality starts, to the mound opposite Arizona’s Zac Gallen, an NL Cy Young finalist last season.
