A month ago, Anthony Nunez didn’t expect to be here. A month ago, Rico Garcia still risked being labeled a flash in the pan. But for the Orioles, who are without multiple veteran relievers, the pair have done more than open eyes.

They’ve quickly become manager Craig Albernaz’s high-leverage arms of choice leading up to closer Ryan Helsley.

The Orioles won Saturday’s game by the comfort of a 6-2 score against the San Francisco Giants, with Coby Mayo’s eighth-inning RBI allowing them to secure a win without the need for a save for the first time this season. But, when Garcia and Nunez were in, their seventh and eighth innings were the sort of tests they keep passing with flying colors.

Albernaz entered the year without specific roles for his relievers. He said “everyone just kind of fills their roles naturally as you go through the course of the season,” and that has been the case. Garcia and Nunez are clearly his preferred options with a tight lead, and they’re showing why they deserve that trust.

“Credit to both of those guys for taking on the challenge, answering the bell, throwing strikes, being efficient,” Albernaz said. “It’s great to see Rico and Nunez settle in. And, the best thing about everyone in our ’pen, they don’t care when they pitch. They just want the ball, and they want to help the team win.”

The strong pitching performances helped lift the Orioles after the losses of Adley Rutschman and Ryan Mountcastle. Rutschman landed on the injured list with ankle inflammation before the game, and Mountcastle departed with foot pain in the second inning.

But the Orioles pulled the game out to return to a .500 record (7-7).

“We’ve been treading water for the last two weeks, essentially,” right-hander Chris Bassitt said. “I think we’ve been playing pretty bad at times. I think we’ve been playing OK at times, but we for sure have not been playing well. But good teams find a way to tread water when they’re not playing well.”

There have been standout players, though, and Garcia is one. He maintained his scoreless and hitless streak to begin the season, with 6 2/3 innings of near perfection (three walks are his only blemishes). And Nunez handled the eighth inning, a 24-year-old charged with getting Rafael Devers out.

After a leadoff double, Nunez faced the heart of the Giants order and mowed them down. He forced Matt Chapman into an infield popout before striking out Devers and Casey Schmitt. Nunez’s ERA, in his first taste of the majors, is 1.23 with a 0.68 WHIP.

Nunez said he knows Devers is aggressive on fastballs early in the count, so he threw changeups on four of his five pitches to him.

“I usually try to see with the first pitch where they’re at, what they’re looking for, maybe, and attacking from there,” Nunez said. “It was just going with the flow and trusting my catcher, as well.”

Garcia proved he could be this dominant last year when he produced a 2.84 in 19 innings after arriving in Baltimore midway through the season. But, for a pitcher who has bounced around the majors and minors, his blossoming into a legit high-leverage arm has been key for the Orioles.

Nunez, too, was far from a certainty. He was optioned to the minors midway through spring training, but he made the opening day roster due to injuries — and, with Andrew Kittredge, Keegan Akin and Dietrich Enns still on the injured list, Nunez has staked his claim as a trusted arm.

“I’ve done what they’ve asked of me, in terms of attacking hitters, staying ahead in counts, just controlling what I can control,” Nunez said.

Baltimore had room with which to operate because of the four runs against right-hander Logan Webb. The loudest one came from shortstop Gunnar Henderson, who blasted his league-leading sixth home run in the third inning. Colton Cowser (who recorded two hits for the first time this season) drove in a run with a groundout an inning prior.

Mayo and Jeremiah Jackson produced multi-RBI performances, too, including Jackson’s deep homer in the seventh.

“Obviously, I haven’t been playing like I want to,” said Jackson, who entered with a .454 OPS. “But to come through and help the team, get a few RBIs, yeah, it felt good.”

That all made the bullpen’s life easier, but Nunez and Garcia were still relied upon in pressure spots. Left-hander Grant Wolfram and Yennier Cano also combined for a scoreless 1 1/3 innings, with Wolfram stranding a pair of inherited runners by forcing Devers into a flyout.

That offense also gave Bassitt, the starting pitcher, a platform from which to work. In the aftermath of Bassitt’s second start with the Orioles — a dismal six-run effort in two innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates — his confidence didn’t seem to waver. He brought the same clubhouse presence each day, with a boisterously competitive streak in whatever game was being played.

And, on his start date Saturday, he blared the likes of Green Day from the speakers.

He was short during his postgame news conference in Pittsburgh. He said later he didn’t want to give away hints to opposing teams as to what was going wrong and how he’d fix it. He seemed to correct some of those issues by Saturday, and this third start was much more emblematic of what the Orioles expect of Bassitt.

Bassitt said he threw a “crazy bullpen” between his second and third starts in which he mostly threw off-speed pitches. He needed to find feel for his spin and an ability to place the pitches in the strikes zone, for his fastball to play up.

“We’re taking the right steps,” he said. “Am I where I want to be? No, but I can pitch like that.”

The 37-year-old allowed seven hits, but only one of those left a Giants bat at more than 90 mph. The weak contact evaded gloves but never amounted to a big inning. And one of those runs could’ve been avoided.

The first, which was unearned, scored in the second after catcher Samuel Basallo allowed a passed ball. That moved Devers to second, and he scored on a two-out Heliot Ramos single. In the fourth the Giants loaded the bases with one out, but Ramos’ weak grounder to first brought home only one runner. Bassitt stranded the rest.

“He looked more like himself,” Albernaz said. “He just looked efficient throwing strikes, looked confident, and he was smooth on the mound.”

And the bullpen continued putting up zeroes. In doing so, Nunez and Garcia appear to be unlikely — yet now undoubtedly — trusted arms.

This article has been updated.