Orioles unravel late in devastating loss to Dodgers

LOS ANGELES — The Orioles had done so much right, which only makes this more of a gut-wrenching defeat.

Ryan Helsley, Baltimore’s closer who returned from the injured list this week, entered with a two-run lead Friday night. He had that lead because of a gutsy pitching performance from a rookie, a leaping catch in right field and a sudden burst of offensive efficiency that combined to put the Orioles one out away from sealing a comeback win.

But Helsley walked off the mound as Dodgers players flooded onto the diamond, celebrating a 6-5 victory that will sting Baltimore long into this West Coast night. In the end, it was a pair of walks and a defensive blunder that did the Orioles in.

After Helsley allowed a solo homer to Mookie Betts to cut the Orioles’ lead to one, he walked two batters. With two outs, Dalton Rushing hit an RBI single to right field. Tyler O’Neill fired home rather than hitting the cut-off man and the ball bounced and skipped past catcher Samuel Basallo. That allowed the winning run to trot home, too.

There is ample blame to go around. First, O’Neill didn’t have a real play at the plate. He could’ve hit the cut-off man. Second, Basallo could’ve caught or blocked the ball. Third, Helsley could’ve backed up the plate in a more advantageous position, against the backstop, to give him the best chance to cut off the ball.

“I tried to trap that ball there,” Basallo said through team interpreter Brandon Quinones. “I think it took a bad bounce there, so to speak. But I feel like I tried my best to trap it, and I should’ve.”

Added Helsley: “It just took a weird hop on Sammy. It’s probably my fault. I wasn’t back to the net close enough to back him up, and the ball got away and obviously they scored.”

Manager Craig Albernaz said the ball took a “weird hop” but that “if you ask Sammy, it’s a play he should have made.” When asked what Basallo could do better in that instance, Albernaz redirected the questioning.

“I mean, the two walks,” Albernaz said. “First off, that’s what hurt, was the uncharacteristic [lack of command] of Helsley. Like obviously, he’s getting back, getting back in the groove, but the two walks hurt that inning.”

The Orioles (35-42) were in a position for Helsley to attempt a save because they had put together a strong game to that point against baseball’s best team.

They’d withstood right-hander Roki Sasaki’s dominance on the mound for the Dodgers through five innings, only to jump on him with two home runs and tie the game in the sixth.

They took a lead in the seventh thanks to the sort of diligent effort they’ve too often lacked.

One batter after the next, the Orioles produced perhaps their best offensive sequence of the season, and it had nothing to do with the pair of home runs this team’s two stars hit one inning earlier.

This was a classic case of passing the proverbial baton — good at-bat to good at-bat — until the Orioles snatched the lead in a game that seemed well on its way to being a snoozefest, thanks to Sasaki.

It began with Colton Cowser staying in to face a left-handed pitcher. Before his matchup with Jack Dreyer, Cowser only had 14 at-bats and one hit against southpaws this season. But Cowser ripped a hanging slider for a first-pitch single. Coby Mayo followed with an opposite-field single. Jackson Holliday walked. And then Jeremiah Jackson poked his own opposite-field knock against right-hander Will Klein to score a pair of runs.

“Those are great at-bats by us,” Albernaz said.

In a four-batter span, Baltimore took the lead. It felt so different from the power barrage of Gunnar Henderson and Pete Alonso against Sasaki in the sixth, but also vital for a team that must find ways to win.

The way this ended, then, is a gutting crash. By the end of it, Helsley was tagged with his first blown save of the season, and while the error is charged to O’Neill, there is equal blame all around — Basallo might’ve caught or blocked the ball, too, and Helsley said he could’ve done better backing up the play at the plate to ensure the ball didn’t get far away.

Before that collapse, the Orioles rose through swings from two of their biggest stars.

The back-to-back home runs from Henderson and Alonso in the sixth inning against Sasaki were critical to this game. But two other sequences were just as pivotal: right-hander Trey Gibson’s mettle with the bases loaded and no outs in the third, and Leody Taveras’ daring — painful — crash into the wall to rob Freddie Freeman of an RBI extra-base hit in the sixth.

Through six major league appearances Gibson has pitched in front of some of the brightest lights in the game. He debuted at Yankee Stadium. His next road appearance, coming Friday, was at Dodger Stadium in front 51,939 fans.

Before the game, Albernaz credited the way Gibson controlled his emotions. The moment, it seems, doesn’t get too big for him — although he’s still tweaking his mentality.

“It’s kind of finding that fine balance between getting too amped up for a game and then trying to be too relaxed,” Gibson said. “I think there’s a fine line between that. That’s kind of what I’m searching for to start these games off.”

The Dodgers scored three runs off Gibson in the first two innings, and the wheels threatened to fall off in the third when the first three batters reached safely. But Gibson, whose fastball hasn’t translated well to the majors yet but whose “death ball” slider is effective, went all in on the death ball.

The pitch lived up to its name. Gibson threw 10 death balls out of 13 pitches to Ryan Ward, Dalton Rushing and Alex Freeland. He struck out all three of them — then left the mound with a shriek into his glove, showing a rare burst of energy. He deserved that excitement because his gutsy showing kept the Orioles in this game.

“The meeting with [pitching coach Drew] French kind of gave me a little reset, and having a quick conversation with Sammy on the mound,” Gibson said. “Like, ‘Hey, I feel really good with the death ball. If I’m gonna die out here, I’m gonna die with the death ball.”

Gibson finished five innings with three runs, seven hits, four walks and eight strikeouts. This was, undoubtedly, not the cleanest outing of his short career. But it gave Baltimore a chance.

And in the sixth, Taveras set up Baltimore’s next offensive foray by stealing what could’ve been a run-scoring hit from Freeman. With right-hander Andrew Kittredge on the mound and Andy Pages at first, Freeman lashed a deep liner to the wall in right field. Taveras leaped, caught it, then banged hard into the fence.

Taveras held onto the catch for the final out but stayed down on the warning track. Albernaz and a trainer ran out from the dugout, and Cowser hustled from center to check on him. Then Cowser gave a thumbs up toward the visiting dugout. Taveras was OK.

Those were the moments that allowed Helsley to take the ball with a lead. He couldn’t maintain it.

“Definitely a gut punch. That’s why it’s 27 outs and no time limit in this game,” Albernaz said. “But I think that we’ve shown a lot of resiliency throughout this season, and I know our guys are going to be ready to play.”