TORONTO — Craig Kimbrel ended his streak of eight straight scoreless appearances Wednesday night, allowing a walk-off RBI single to Isiah Kiner-Falefa in the bottom of the ninth inning in the Orioles’ 3-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.
“I was trying to put the ball up, they were trying to hit the ball and, in that situation, it worked out for them tonight,” Kimbrel said.
Baltimore’s offense, which scored a combined 17 runs over the first two games of the series, struggled against José Berríos and the Blue Jays’ bullpen to allow their American League East division rivals to keep the game close after the Orioles (39-21) coughed up an early 2-0 lead.
The Orioles had scored first in four straight games heading into Wednesday, and that trend continued in the second inning when Anthony Santander took Berríos deep with a 436-foot solo homer to right field. The second-deck blast was Santander’s 12th of the season and his third in his past five games.
“He’s swinging the bat so well right now from both sides of the plate,” manager Brandon Hyde said of Santander. “The power is showing up from the left side. He’s really getting to fastballs. So, yeah, Berríos is a really tough starter. It’s nice to get a couple runs off him there early. We just couldn’t get anything going after that.”
Two batters later, Cedric Mullins drew a walk, stole second and scored on an RBI double by Ramón Urías. Mullins’ 12 stolen bases lead the team this season despite the center fielder’s continued struggles to reach base. Urías, meanwhile, has taken advantage of his sporadic playing time of late by recording at least one hit in seven of his past eight games.
That would be all the Orioles could do against Berríos, who entered the game 10-1 with a 2.95 ERA against the Orioles in his career and allowed just two runs on six hits with three walks and two strikeouts. Baltimore had a chance to ruin his stat line in the sixth, when Ryan O’Hearn singled and Santander walked with one out. However, after a mound visit, Berríos retired Jordan Westburg and Kyle Stowers to end the threat.
Albert Suárez made his third start since rejoining the Orioles’ rotation and put together a solid outing, allowing two runs on five hits and a walk with four strikeouts in five innings. The Blue Jays scored both runs on him in the second, putting two runners in scoring position with no outs and cashing in with a sacrifice fly by Alejandro Kirk and a ground ball up the middle that snuck through for an RBI single for Kiner-Falefa.
“Mechanically, a little bit, I think I was — in the first couple innings — I was a little bit rushing to home plate and after I just make a little adjustment to make it through,” Suárez said.
Suárez relied almost exclusively on his fastball and cutter, throwing the two pitches a combined 84% of the time. He only threw 84 pitches after his pitch count reached 95 his previous outing, but Hyde opted to turn to his well-rested bullpen rather than push Suárez any deeper in a tie game.
“Mechanically, a little bit, I think I was — in the first couple innings — I was a little bit rushing to home plate and after I just make a little adjustment to make it through,” Suárez said.
Suárez relied almost exclusively on his fastball and cutter, throwing the two pitches a combined 84% of the time. He only threw 84 pitches after his pitch count reached 95 his previous outing, but Hyde opted to turn to his well-rested bullpen rather than push Suárez any deeper in a tie game.
Jacob Webb was the first reliever out of the bullpen, handling the middle of the Blue Jays’ lineup for the bottom of the sixth. Bo Bichette led off the frame with a double to left, and he later moved to third on a single by Kirk to put runners on the corners with two outs. Webb buckled down, however, striking out Kiner-Falefa on three pitches capped off by a whiff on an 86.8 mph changeup at the bottom of the zone.
The Orioles’ and Blue Jays’ relievers continued to trade zeros in the later innings. Tim Mayza and Chad Green combined for a scoreless seventh and Danny Coulombe recorded a 1-2-3 outing in the bottom half of the frame. Green stayed out for the eighth and set the Orioles down in order before Yennier Cano did the same to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bichette and George Springer. Not to be outdone, Yimi García recorded two strikeouts in a perfect ninth.
“They have some good bullpen arms,” Hyde said. “We see Myza all the time and he’s tough on left-handers especially. I haven’t seen Chad Green in a while but remember him with the Yankees and he threw the ball really well and then Yimi García might be the best reliever in the game right now the way he’s throwing the baseball right now. So, we had a tough time offensively there the last few innings.”
Kimbrel then got the ball trying to keep the tie game intact, but Justin Turner — who had not faced the veteran reliever since the 2018 World Series — led off the inning with a single. Cavan Biggio pinch ran for him, moved to second when Kimbrel threw away a pickoff attempt, got to third on a fly ball by Kirk and scored when Kiner-Falefa roped a line drive near the base of the wall in right field.
The loss was only the Orioles’ third in their past 13 games and their first of this week’s series in Toronto. Baltimore will look to clinch the series victory Thursday when their top pitching prospect Cade Povich makes his MLB debut. Fellow left-hander Yusei Kikuchi will get the start for the Blue Jays.
Orioles at Blue Jays
Thursday, 1:07 p.m.
TV: MASN
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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