The last time Grayson Rodriguez faced the Mariners, the Orioles starting pitcher handed the ball to his bullpen in the seventh inning with a 2-0 lead. Tuesday night, Rodriguez handed the ball to his bullpen in the seventh inning with a 2-0 lead.
That’s where the déjà vu ended. In May, Baltimore’s bullpen coughed up Rodriguez’s lead as Seattle came back for the victory. Tuesday, it was as resplendent as Rodriguez, maintaining the sophomore fireballer’s shutout to secure the Orioles’ 2-0 win. Rodriguez threw 6 1/3 stellar innings, allowing only two hits and striking out eight batters against a Mariners offense that is one of the majors’ worst.
Baltimore is 54-31 and regains sole possession of first place in the American League East, up one game on the New York Yankees (54-33), who lost Tuesday. The Orioles’ triumph marks their seventh shutout this season and first since June 11 versus the Atlanta Braves.
Rodriguez, who earned his team-high 10th win, tallied a career-best 19 swings and misses, eight on his 96 mph four-seam fastball and nine on his whiffling changeup. The Orioles’ No. 2 starter now has a 3.45 ERA on the season with two or fewer runs allowed in five of his past six starts.
In his start against the AL West-leading Mariners in May, Rodriguez carried a no-hit bid into the sixth inning and surrendered just one hit, an infield single. But Danny Coulombe, Albert Suárez, Yennier Cano and Cionel Pérez combined to allow four runs on six hits to cough up the lead.
Baltimore’s bullpen didn’t have a repeat Tuesday, as Cano, Pérez and Craig Kimbrel allowed just one hit in 2 2/3 innings. It got dicey in the ninth after two Kimbrel hit two batters and the Mariners brought the winning run to the plate with one out. Cal Raleigh nearly tied the game with a two-run home run off the veteran closer, but it narrowly hooked right of the foul pole. Kimbrel, however, clamped down and got Raleigh to strike out swinging, Dominic Canzone to ground out and superstar Julio Rodríguez to punch out to seal the victory.
The only thing that could have prevented Rodriguez’s scoreless night was his own defense. He almost spiked an easy throw to second base on a would-be 1-6-3 double play, an errant toss that nearly caused Ty France to slide into shortstop Gunnar Henderson’s legs. Henderson miraculously corralled the ball on the ground to secure the forceout, deemed so after a review, and Rodriguez blew a 97.4 mph fastball past Raleigh to end the inning. The 24-year-old then let out one of his signature screams into his mitt before he strutted off the mound.
In two starts against Seattle this season, Rodriguez has yet to give up a run and allowed just three hits with 15 strikeouts in 12 1/3 innings.
Anthony Santander provided all the offense Rodriguez and his relievers needed with an RBI single off right-hander George Kirby in the fourth. It’s neither June nor hot in the Pacific Northwest, but Santander is still hitting like it is, carrying over his torrid performance last month into July. Cedric Mullins provided welcomed insurance with an RBI single in the seventh. The Orioles have won five of their past six and are on pace for 104 victories, which would be their most since 1970. Baltimore won 108 games that year and claimed its second of three World Series titles.
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