HOUSTON _ Hours before the American League's worst and best teams played 11 innings Friday night at Minute Maid Park, an executive overseeing the former after working for the latter remarked on how hard the players on his current roster have played throughout a trying season.
Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias is well aware of the rebuilding effort in front of him, but games like Friday's 4-3 loss show that even if the talent he is trying to add remains a work in progress, a competitive spirit is already developing.
At times, the Orioles looked overmatched, yet they never looked out of it. Robinson Chirinos' walk-off double sealed their fate in the series-opening defeat. But taking 11 innings to get there on a night they struck out 17 times and managed only two hits in their final 27 at-bats shows that development is already underway.
Although they built a 3-0 lead against the Astros (44-21) and right-hander Gerrit Cole, their bats went cold. Four days removed from the Orioles (19-44) making the first overall selection in the MLB draft, Cole showed the talent such a pick, if it goes well, can possess. He struck out 14 Orioles and walked none in his seven innings for his fourth start with double-digit strikeouts and no walks, already two shy of matching the major league record for such outings in a season.
Thanks to four walkless frames from the Astros bullpen, the Orioles endured their sixth game of that offensively ill combination; only one other team has more than three.
They built a first-inning lead putting the ball in play against Cole. Anthony Santander, recalled earlier in the day when regular left fielder Dwight Smith Jr. was put on the 7-day concussion injured list, doubled. Trey Mancini followed with a grounder to third. Yuli Gurriel's throw pulled first baseman Tyler White off the bag, and a challenge on the play from Houston manager AJ Hinch was for naught. Cole hit Stevie Wilkerson, also a recent returnee to the majors after an ankle injury DJ Stewart suffered Wednesday, to load the bases.
Rio Ruiz, playing in Houston for the first time despite signing with the Astros as the organization's fourth-round pick in 2012, poked a single through the left side to score two unearned runs.
Gabriel Ynoa made his best effort to make them stand. After walking the first batter he faced, he got Houston star Alex Bregman to ground into a double play, then retired the next four Astros.
His batterymate, Chance Sisco, provided an extra run of support by taking advantage of the shallow Crawford Boxes in Minute Maid Park's left-field corner, hitting his first home run of the season with a projected distance of only 350 feet.
The Orioles struggled to touch Cole from there. He retired all but one of the final 14 batters he faced, a Santander single the only blip, while recording nine strikeouts. He generated 29 swings and misses, the most by any pitcher this season and the most by an Astro since pitch-tracking began in 2008.
Ynoa was not as dominant but seemed poised to outpitch Cole, putting together his best major league start since September 2017. He cruised through four innings on 49 pitches, the only hit allowed to that point ricocheting off him.
The fifth inning left Ynoa with a no-decision, though. Josh Reddick homered on an 0-2 slider in the strike zone, and after White walked, Tony Kemp tied the game by homering on an elevated sinker. Ynoa issued another walk, prompting a visit from pitching coach Doug Brocail, but he retired the final five hitters he faced, the top five in Houston's order, to complete the quality start.
Shawn Armstrong pitched a clean seventh, and Richard Bleier entered and produced five straight ground balls. Only the fifth, from Reddick, got through, and manager Brandon Hyde called on Mychal Givens. A hard fly ball yielded no damage, and after a Sisco error moved the winning run to third, Givens struck out White to send the game to extras. He then pitched a clean 10th before Branden Kline surrendered the winning run in 11th. The Orioles tried to prolong the game by reviewing the play at the plate, but the safe call was confirmed.
