Orioles hitters do just enough to stop the bleeding, ending 5-game losing streak

MIAMI – Sometime between their late-night flight out of New York on Monday and their 4:30 a.m. bed time Tuesday, the Orioles must have stopped at a pharmacy and picked up a Band-Aid.

They had to. Five straight losses, all by five or more runs, opened a wound in Baltimore’s side.

A 9-7 win over the sub-.500 Marlins won’t be enough by itself to clear up Baltimore’s ailments. Tuesday’s starter, Chris Bassitt, fought control issues across four ugly innings. The bottom of the lineup continued to drudge through hapless at-bats. A defensive mishap almost cost Baltimore the game.

But those are problems for another day. At LoanDepot Park, the Orioles just had to stop the bleeding Tuesday night.

The Orioles survived two blown three-run leads, getting a clutch, two-out RBI single from Adley Rutschman in the ninth inning to snap the losing streak.

“Yeah, guys were fired up,” manager Craig Albernaz said after the game. “I think it’s, yeah, part of it was the [losing] streak, but also part of it was the game that we played. Back-and-forth game-ish and the guys grinded through it.”

Gunnar Henderson seemed to expel the frustrations of a four-game sweep in New York with his first swing of the game, ripping a 102-mph single through the right side. It kicked off a three-run first inning for the Orioles, who held a lead for the first time since the first game of their April 30 doubleheader against the Astros.

More runs came in the third and fifth innings. Pete Alonso, one of the few Orioles who swung a hot bat against the Yankees, kept hitting. He doubled twice, walked once and scored four times, thrice on Samuel Basallo knocks.

Basallo finished a home run shy of the cycle, collecting the first four-RBI game of his big league career.

But Basallo needed a pick-me-up after an errant throw on an Esteury Ruiz stolen base allowed the Marlins to tie the game 7-7 in the eighth inning. His fellow backstop granted it.

Albernaz called on Rutschman to pinch hit for Basallo. Batting right-handed, Rutschman pulled a fastball into left field, scoring Taylor Ward.

Through team interpreter Brandon Quinones, Basallo said he “completely understood” Albernaz’s decision.

“Sammy did a great job today both behind the plate and with the bat,” said Rutschman.

One batter later, Leody Taveras tacked on one more with an RBI single. Rico Garcia, filling in for injured closer Ryan Helsley, closed the door in the bottom half of the frame.

Still, the same old issues were evident.

Bassitt slogged through another start, allowing four runs, walking three batters, hitting two more and throwing a wild pitch. The veteran acknowledged after the game he didn’t have a feel for his curveball.

“I need my curveball for the most part,” said Bassitt, who will reach 10 years of major league service time Wednesday. “And when I can’t land it, usually I stop throwing it, and then, when I stop throwing it, it’s obviously not usually a good outing. So I was like, ‘All right, let’s figure it out. Let’s try to get it going,’ so to speak, and it just never got going. A couple hit batters with some stuff, a couple walks because of it. So it was just one of those days.”

The first five hitters in the Orioles’ starting lineup combined for seven hits, five walks and six RBIs. But the production fell off from there: the bottom four hitters went 2-for-18.

An overworked bullpen surrendered the Orioles’ lead, too.

It was not a pleasant homecoming for reliever Anthony Nunez. Pitching in front of more than 20 friends and family members, Nunez tossed a scoreless sixth before allowing back-to-back homers in the seventh.

Coby Mayo, also playing in his home state for the first time since becoming a big leaguer, went 0-for-4 with a strikeout.

Now comes the hard part: turning one win into two. The Orioles’ two most lopsided wins of the season — 10-3 victories over the Red Sox on April 24 and the Astros the following week — both preceded one-sided losses — a 17-1 embarrassment and an 11-5 bludgeoning.

“There’s no lack of effort on this team,” Rutschman said. “Guys are going 100% every day and I think everyone would rather err on the side of going too hard than not going hard enough. I think guys are trying to find that happy medium of what works for them and we have so much talent on this team that guys are gonna learn from their mistakes and continue to work things out and I think everyone’s got the utmost faith in our hitters and our pitching staff.”

On Tuesday night, they did enough to end the skid.