Orioles seal series win against Royals with help coming from unexpected places

KANSAS CITY — This was the game of the unexpected star. The little-known trade piece, the resurrection project, the minor league free agent — they all combined to create an Orioles win that may as well be plastered on the walls of Baltimore’s pro scouting department.

Consider these names: Anthony Nunez, the infielder-turned-reliever whom the Orioles acquired from the Mets in exchange for Cedric Mullins last year. Leody Taveras, the cast-off from the Texas Rangers who just keeps hitting for Baltimore. Jeremiah Jackson, a minor leaguer-turned-breakout player for this team.

Jackson and Taveras joined in on an offensive outpouring in the sixth inning against the Kansas City Royals, and then Nunez earned his first career major league save by holding onto an 8-6 victory.

The Orioles aren’t firing on all cylinders. This win brings them back within one game of .500 (12-13). But even with some stars not performing at their best — and with more experienced players on the injured list — these unlikely contributors are becoming players for whom expectations are built.

“It’s just one of those games where you feel everyone contributed,” said infielder Coby Mayo, whose contribution was of the loudest variety. “We have a lot of guys who are really good, talented, under-appreciated.”

When the Orioles took back a lead in the sixth against right-hander Michael Wacha, Taveras and Jackson were a central part. Their singles scored three runs, and then Mayo walloped a 452-foot three-run home run to extend the lead.

And with a two-run lead in the ninth, Nunez shut the door on a wild series win over the Royals that included a 12-inning win Monday and a wild-pitch induced walk-off loss Tuesday.

A month ago, Nunez didn’t know whether he’d make the opening day roster at all. He was optioned to the minor leagues before the end of spring training, yet injuries elsewhere in the bullpen prompted Nunez’s inclusion. He has taken this chance in stride.

During spring training, right-hander Chris Bassitt said, the way Nunez was throwing elicited the belief that Nunez would arrive at some point as a high-leverage arm.

“Man, we might have a back-end guy here pretty quick,” Bassitt recalled. “Happened faster than I thought. But, I mean, his stuff is elite, and he comes right at you. You can’t really ask for much more than that, when you have really, really good stuff and the guy is attacking with a whole bunch of really good pitches.”

Nunez appeared to generate a quick 1-2-3 ninth inning, but Mayo’s throwing error with two outs brought Bobby Witt Jr. to the plate as the tying run. Nunez struck out the All-Star to seal the win.

“It was cool,” Nunez said, which seems like an underselling of the moment.

Manager Craig Albernaz said Nunez was probably “pretty doused right now with a bunch of condiments and beer” because his teammates recognized his first career save.

“You gotta tell yourself it’s just another inning,” Nunez said, “but you know you’re closing the game for the first time, and it was really exciting.”

Nothing about this series was easy, so it should come as no surprise that the Royals didn’t go away easily. After a six-run sixth inning that gave Baltimore a sizeable lead, Bassitt couldn’t provide a shutdown inning. He conceded a leadoff home run to Carter Jensen and followed it with a double to Michael Massey. And with right-hander Yennier Cano in the game, Kyle Isbel’s two-run homer narrowed the Orioles’ advantage to two runs.

The start to Bassitt’s time with Baltimore has been poor. In five starts, Bassitt has yet to complete six innings, although the 5 1/3 innings he managed Wednesday was his longest appearance yet.

Bassitt said he felt better than in previous outings, but the results were “awful.”

Too often in this series finale Bassitt’s missed locations proved problematic. In the first inning, after Pete Alonso’s two-run shot gave the Orioles an early edge, he grooved a middle-middle sinker that Vinnie Pasquantino crushed for a solo homer. Jensen drove an RBI single in the fourth against a thigh-high fastball, and Lane Thomas’ RBI single that same inning came against a hanging breaking ball.

Bassitt finished with five runs against him off eight hits, and his Orioles ERA is 6.75.

“I’m usually an asset, and right now I’m a liability,” said Bassitt, who called upon himself and the rest of the rotation to begin working deeper into games to help the bullpen. “I’ve got to figure out how to be more consistent and how to eat innings — and not just eat innings, but eat quality innings.”

He had the advantage of run support, though, and it came in bunches. Alonso followed Taylor Ward’s major league-leading 13th double with an opposite-field home run against Wacha, a pitcher who had allowed just three runs in his first 27 innings this season.

The Orioles tagged Wacha for six runs, with the majority of those coming in that breakout sixth inning. Taveras and Jackson singled and Mayo hit that towering blast to deep left field against right-hander Eli Morgan — his second straight game with a three-run homer.

“Being in this division for a couple years, I haven’t seen a right-handed hitter go where he went, and that was pretty impressive,” Albernaz said. “I let him know that.”

Mayo couldn’t tell off the bat how far that ball would fly, but he knew he hit it sweetly, and the exact distance mattered less than a positive approach.

“Honestly, right now, any hard contact I’m happy with,” said Mayo, who is still hitting .164 despite the homers in consecutive games.

Taveras and Jackson have been pleasant surprises, and their emergence as legitimate producers has helped cover for parts of the lineup that are slumping. Jackson leads Baltimore with 19 RBIs; Taveras is third with 14. Their knocks weren’t the only encouraging aspects from the offense.

Before Wednesday’s game, Albernaz said he thought the double play that Colton Cowser hit into the night before was encouraging. Not the outcome, but the swing. It was a 103-mph rocket that turned into two outs because of a nifty defensive play.

Cowser produced a much clearer sign of progress in the fifth inning Wednesday when he led off the frame against Wacha with a 112.5-mph double to right field. That was his first hit since April 14, breaking a rut that stretched for 17 at-bats. Cowser added another hit in the sixth, which set up the two-on situation for Mayo.

“Really been grinding,” Cowser said. “It feels like it’s been an all-encompassing search for the past, I don’t know, couple months?”

Cowser said he worked on his swing throughout the offseason, and while the changes felt good during those hitting sessions, they didn’t translate into results in the game. He wanted to increase the time his bat was in the zone and create more separation between his hands and bodies on the swing. With detailed hitting sessions lately, Cowser feels capable of a turnaround.

“I felt like it was coming for a while,” Cowser said. “I had some good at-bats during the last homestand, and it felt like I was really close, and then I wasn’t. But I think there are ebbs and flows to struggle. ... Ultimately, it’s trying to just stay the course.”

With closer Ryan Helsley away on the family medical emergency list, Nunez got the ball in the ninth. He worked around a two-out error and struck out Witt to end it.

All things considered, these were not the players many expected to be central figures a few months ago. But these discoveries are just as important for the health of a club, and they helped lift the Orioles to a win.