Orioles dodge trouble on the way to 5-3 win over the Athletics

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As Lawrence Butler flung his bat, then his helmet, to the dirt next to home plate, Yennier Cano stood stock-still. Arms slightly out from his body, legs apart as if straddling the mound itself, Cano stopped and stared.

When the Orioles right-hander is at his best, there are few who cut this sort of imposing frame. Tall, lanky, Cano stood watch for one second, two, three, four. Butler began undoing his batting gloves and elbow guard before Cano vacated his vigil and, in the dugout moments later, received a thank-you hug from right-hander Rico Garcia.

This was just one of the heart-in-throat moments for the Orioles bullpen against the Athletics on Saturday night at Sutter Health Park. When baseball is played here, there never seems to be a dull moment.

“I feel really proud of the work we’ve been doing here as a group,” Cano said through team interpreter Brandon Quinones. “And I’m really happy with the way the guys came in and have gotten the job done.”

In the sixth, Alex Hoppe replaced Shane Baz and managed — with a nice play from third baseman Christian Encarnacion-Strand — to leave the bases loaded.

In the seventh, Cano inherited bases loaded and one out from Garcia. He struck out both batters he faced to leave the bases juiced.

And, in the eighth, right-hander Cam Sanders allowed a run in a jam of his own making. But behind him the Orioles defense came through hugely. Encarnacion-Strand fielded a high chopper to third with one out and runners on the corners. He fired to Gunnar Henderson, who covered second base, and Henderson shot the ball to Coby Mayo for the inning-ending double play.

Those three innings — getting into messes just to get out of them — were the most vital portions of Saturday’s 5-3 Orioles win against the Athletics.

“Our bullpen tonight, it was really impressive all around, in the sense of all the guys picking each other up,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “It was fun to watch. A little stressful, but the way those guys pull for each other, like we’ve talked about all year, they’re selfless, no egos out there, and they’re doing it for the right reasons. It was so much fun to watch those guys go out — but Yeni’s inning in particular, that was fun to watch. That was electric, and we needed it.”

With this victory, and because of the Cleveland Guardians’ loss earlier in the day, the Orioles moved to one game back of the final American League wild-card place.

That is a wild concept in and of itself, given the Orioles’ 67-69 record. Yet it wasn’t even the craziest thing to occur Saturday night. That distinction goes to the Athletics for their Yakety-Sax-inducing debacle in the ninth inning. The Orioles will take the insurance run. But it’s almost unbelievable how it happened.

Let’s lay it out in four steps:

1. Colton Cowser’s hard-hit ground ball skipped past the glove of second baseman Zack Gelof into right field.
2. Butler, playing right, threw to first base because Cowser took a wide turn around the bag. But Butler’s throw was offline and bounced toward the Orioles dugout.
3. Catcher Jonah Heim, backing up the throw, accidentally kicked the ball into the dugout itself, which granted Cowser two free bases.
4. With Cowser on third, right-hander Elvis Alvarado threw a wild pitch to the backstop. Cowser trotted home.

Whew. Got that?

“Chaos,” Albernaz said.

Late-night baseball in Sacramento has this effect. It worked out for the Orioles, who added to a lead that Leody Taveras did much to build.

Taveras has reached another level with runners in scoring position. He entered Saturday hitting .296 with an .830 on-base-plus-slugging percentage in those situations (compared to a .194 average and .567 OPS with bases empty), and he delivered again in two clutch moments.

“Not trying to do too much,” Taveras said. “Trying to put the ball in play and, finally, I got the job [done].”

After Coby Mayo walked in the third inning and took second base on an errant pickoff throw, Taveras lasered a ground-rule double into right-center field. And in the sixth, against left-handed reliever José Suarez, Taveras switched sides of the plate and did it again. He pulled a hard-hit double down the left-field line for two RBIs.

Between those knocks, Cowser’s fifth-inning solo homer against right-hander Jack Perkins gave Baz more offense than he often has behind him. And, because of it, Baz earned his fifth win of the season, bringing his record to 5-14.

Pitching wins do not count for much anymore. But Baz was glad to get his first recorded win since June 12, despite pitching well for most of the year.

“B.Y. [Brandon Young] made a joke to me that I haven’t had a win since ’Nam,” Baz said. “It kind of feels true. But sometimes it just takes one. It just takes one to get rolling. ... It felt good to get that out of the way.”

Baz noted that usually, while his offense hits, he spends his between-inning time in the tunnel between the dugout and clubhouse. But the setup in Sacramento has no such tunnel, so he remained in the dugout throughout his outing.

“Maybe the guys just want to see me more and I can sit in the dugout and we’ll win more,” he joked. “No, it’s been a great team to be a part of, and it’s exciting.”

But, once he had that lead, Baz turned from efficient to wild. His command came apart in the sixth inning, when he walked Heim to lead off the frame. Soon, two singles loaded the bases, and a one-out mound visit didn’t settle Baz. He uncorked four straight balls to walk Butler and bring home a run.

And, with two outs, Baz hit Donovan Walton to bring home a second run.

With the bases still loaded, Albernaz turned to Hoppe. His stuff is nasty. His command is suspect. After earning his first major league save in Friday’s win, Hoppe was thrown right back into the fire — and he immediately delivered three balls.

From there, though, he found the zone once more. He forced a slow chopper to Encarnacion-Strand, who raced in and made a strong throw to end the threat.

“Hoppe picked me up so big tonight,” Baz said. “It was just great tonight, and our defense was so good tonight. They made multiple plays for me.”

Cano wiped out two Athletics batters in the seventh, and then Sanders benefited from a key double-play turn in the eighth. Just to top it all off, right-hander Andrew Kittredge stranded two runners in the ninth inning to earn the save.

This was not easy. But, at this time of year, a win coming any way matters more than how it came.

“We got off to a rocky start,” Baz said. “I don’t think that’s a secret. It was kind of just sloppy every night. And I think it’s kind of the same old thing every year, where the teams that make a difference at the end of the year are the ones that get hot at the right time.”

Note

Catcher Samuel Basallo departed the game in the bottom of the eighth inning after he blocked a pitch in the dirt in the seventh and it hit his bare right hand. Basallo also hit in the top of the eighth, and Albernaz said his swing didn’t look comfortable. Yohel Pozo replaced Basallo.

This article has been updated.