The visiting Orioles finally got something they hadn’t over much of the past two months: a break.
Toronto Blue Jays right fielder Randal Grichuk, a consistent thorn in the Orioles’ side, couldn’t corral a full-count foul ball hit with two outs in Friday night’s 10th inning. That gave Pat Valaika an extra life to draw a bases-loaded walk that scored the decisive run in a 6-5 victory in Buffalo, N.Y., that ended Baltimore’s 20-game road losing streak.
The Orioles had not won on the road since May 5, when left-hander John Means threw a no-hitter in Seattle. Since, Means has landed on the injured list, the Orioles suffered a 14-game losing streak overall that overlapped with this 20-game slide and saw their record fall from 15-16 to an American League-worst 24-52.
The road losing streak was the second longest in AL history and tied for the third longest in either league, with the Arizona Diamondbacks entering Friday having lost 23 straight as guests.
The Orioles began the top of the eighth trailing 5-1, needing as many runs as they had produced in their previous four games combined to tie the game. An unearned run in the third inning, scored thanks to an error, single and double play, ended a 26-inning scoreless streak and accounted for their only run in 31 innings entering the eighth.
They opened it with a pair of walks. After a strikeout, Ryan Mountcastle singled up the middle to score one run. A pitching change prompted manager Brandon Hyde to bring on Anthony Santander, nursing a sore ankle, as a pinch-hitter. He delivered a 113-mph single to bring home another run. Both batters scored when Austin Hays doubled to left-center field.
Beginning the top of the 10th with a runner automatically at second, the Orioles drew three walks before they made three outs. In the bottom half, Cole Sulser, who recorded the save in the win that ended Baltimore’s 14-game skid, issued a leadoff walk, but followed by getting Most Valuable Player frontrunner Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to ground into a double play before a strikeout to strand the potential tying run at third.
Before Friday night, Matt Harvey last pitched in Buffalo in 2012, then a flamethrowing prospect on the verge of a sterling start to his major league career that put him in the center of the baseball world.
Harvey didn’t recapture his past, but at the ballpark that was his Triple-A home before his ascension to the New York Mets, he at least seemed to shake the previous two months. For the first time since May 1, Harvey completed five innings, ending a nine-start streak of short outings he frequently deemed “unacceptable.”
The 32-year-old allowed three earned runs over 5 2/3 innings to cut his ERA to 7.54, still the highest of any pitcher who has made as many as the 16 starts he has. Despite his struggles, Hyde has stuck with Harvey in the rotation, largely because the Orioles lack other options. They signed him to a minor league deal this offseason hoping he could provide outings like Friday’s, pitching into the middle innings and giving the team an opportunity to win.
He surrendered home runs to George Springer in the second and Guerrero Jr. in the third. Another run came with two outs in the fourth when Grichuk tripled after Hays lost his footing in right and scored when Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit a weak grounder third baseman Maikel Franco couldn’t field cleanly enough to make the tough play. The sequence continued a trend for Harvey; by Statcast’s outs above average, no starter has had worse defense played behind him this year.
But he recorded six more outs, exiting with the Orioles down two. He’s left 10 straight starts with the Orioles trailing.
In Toronto right-hander Alek Manoah’s previous outing, he allowed four home runs to the Orioles at Camden Yards, with the latter half coming back-to-back and preceding a high-and-inside fastball that hit Franco and caused a benches-clearing fracas. Manoah was ejected and later handed a five-game suspension.
He started Friday only because he’s appealing that punishment, in hopes of minimizing or deleting it. He at least delayed it, and Friday, that was to the Orioles’ detriment. He worked six innings, with the only run scored against him being unearned.
