Shane Baz deals and Orioles clear Green Monster twice in win over Red Sox

BOSTON — This isn’t Coby Mayo’s ceiling, nor do the Orioles plan to stuff him in this box. The 24-year-old former fourth-round pick, Baltimore thinks, will be more than a platoon bat.

But for the moment? What a platoon bat he is.

The Orioles infielder continued his destruction of left-handed pitching with a line-drive home run that just got over the Green Monster in left field, which raised Mayo’s average against southpaws this year to .304 with a 1.077 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.

When first baseman Pete Alonso added a two-run home run against left-hander Connelly Early, Baltimore had already produced all the offense right-hander Shane Baz would require. This was a complete 4-2 victory to begin Baltimore’s three-game series against the Boston Red Sox — two right-handed thumpers making their mark against a southpaw before Baz produced a fourth straight quality start.

“Left-handed starters has been our bugaboo for a while now — not just this year, but years past,“ manager Craig Albernaz said. ”And actively trying to problem-solve it, and Coby being able to step up for us and hitting kind of in the middle of the order and being able to do damage. Coby’s been in a great spot, he’s been hitting righties well, but in particularly against lefties, he’s been doing a great job of really getting good pitches to hit and getting his swing off."

Part of the problem-solving was signing Alonso, a right-handed hitter who historically feasts on pitching of any kind. Alonso’s recent stretch looks more like what Baltimore expected when it signed him to a five-year deal.

Since May 13, Alonso is hitting .310 with two doubles and four homers. He now has at least an RBI in each of his last four games, too, bringing his tally to 16 in an 18-game span.

“Pete and Mayo delivering the big blow,” Albernaz said, “it was awesome.”

The Orioles have now won eight of their last 11 games, and as of the final out Tuesday with West Coast games ongoing, they were only half a game out of the wild card despite a 29-32 record.

“I don’t think anybody in this clubhouse ever really doubted that we could turn it around,” right-hander Andrew Kittredge said when asked to compare the current play to that of a couple weeks ago, when the Tampa Bay Rays swept Baltimore. “There’s a long way to go. We’ve still got a lot of baseball left, but definitely it feels like almost a 180 that we’ve kind of flipped there.”

Baz’s outing was among his best since joining the Orioles in a trade this winter. He allowed two runs on sacrifice flies throughout seven efficient innings, and his knuckle curveball once more baffled an opposing lineup. He recorded five of his six strikeouts on that breaking ball.

After beginning the season slowly, Baz has completed seven innings in three of his last four starts. In that span, he has pitched 27 innings with seven earned runs, 10 walks and 25 strikeouts — lowering his ERA to 4.29.

When Baz compares this recent run to the beginning of the season, the difference comes down to execution in the strike zone. He finished with a 68% strike rate Tuesday, but above that, Baz said he’s not trying to strike out the side each time.

“Just challenging hitters to put the ball in play, like, the first three pitches of an at-bat,” Baz said, which allows him to work more deeply into games. “Not trying to strike everybody out. Not trying to be, like, too perfect with my locations and stuff like that. And yeah, just attacking the zone.”

His efforts allowed the Orioles to avoid an ignominious record. Baltimore has played in the American League East since 1969, when the division was founded. They have begun 0-7 on the road against division rivals three times, including this year. But by beating the Red Sox, the Orioles avoided becoming the first team in Baltimore’s history to begin 0-8 in division road games.

Mayo, who announced his engagement yesterday on Instagram to his longtime girlfriend, Ashtyn, leveled the game immediately after a first inning run crossed against Baz. These 48 hours will be among his lasting memories.

“Getting engaged is, you know, once in a lifetime, and I was really nervous, but got it out of the way,” Mayo said. “And then get to the field today, all the support from my teammates was awesome. And once the game started, it’s just, you know, play ball, and just was happy with that first at-bat hitting a homer, eight pitches, wherever it was. Engaged and homer in the big leagues is pretty cool.”

Then Alonso gave Baltimore the lead by throttling a two-run homer over the Green Monster in the third. After the pair of homers, the Orioles added a fourth run in the fourth by playing small ball. Tyler O’Neill singled, stole second and took third when Leody Taveras bunted. A sacrifice fly from Blaze Alexander brought O’Neill home.

Baz dealt the rest of the way, and Kittredge and Rico Garcia closed down the series-opening victory.

The decision to use Kittredge in the eighth inning of a two-run game was notable because it was one of the few times this season Albernaz tabbed Kittredge for a high-leverage moment. Kittredge, whose right shoulder inflammation delayed the start of his year, has a deceptively high ERA (6.94) because of seven runs that scored against him in one outing. But beyond that, he has looked more like the stable late-inning reliever of old.

“It was a great spot for him. He stepped up big, too. He threw 11 pitches, 11 strikes,” Albernaz said. “Kit did a great job tonight and look forward to kind of seeing where he’s at moving forward.”

Kittredge’s display was just one of the positives from a series-opening win. The Orioles signed Alonso to help against lefties. They developed Mayo to do the same. And with Baz cruising, their homers were the difference.