Sunday’s afternoon game at Camden Yards was a matchup of what could have been and what is. Two pitchers who share a last name, one whose days in an Oriole uniform never came and another for whom they are only beginning, dueled in a crowded Baltimore venue older than either of them.
But neither Orioles rookie right-hander Grayson Rodriguez nor former Baltimore prospect Eduardo Rodriguez were around when the home team secured its sixth straight win. Adam Frazier rushed home on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 10th to give the Orioles a 2-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers, completing a series sweep.
“Those kind of wins, at the end of each season, they add up,” said Fraizer, whose fielder’s choice Friday gave Baltimore a walk-off win in the series opener. “That’s how you make the playoffs.”
The Orioles (14-7) have tied their third-best start in franchise history, trailing only the 1966 team (16-5) that won the World Series and the 1968 group (15-6) that finished 91-71.
Baltimore’s victory came despite Eduardo Rodriguez, ranked among Baltimore’s top minor leaguers before being traded during the team’s 2014 playoff run, taking a perfect game into the seventh inning. He retired the first 17 Orioles before Ryan Mountcastle smacked a changeup into center field for a single.
But no one scored with either Rodriguez on the mound. The Tigers struck first on a sacrifice fly in the top of the eighth before the Orioles answered on Jorge Mateo’s mad dash from first on Anthony Santander’s pinch-hit double in the bottom half.
Both teams went scoreless in the ninth before the 10th inning put automatic runners at second base. Paired with two intentional walks, Orioles left-hander Keegan Akin had three base runners to whom he didn’t throw a pitch, but he retired all three Tigers he did go after, leaving the bases loaded. Baltimore’s pitching staff has only allowed three runs it its past 54 innings pitched.
“We’ve got a lot of special pitchers in this clubhouse,” Grayson Rodriguez said. “I think some good things are just starting for us. It’s gonna be exciting to see how we do as pitchers from here on out.”
In the bottom half, Frazier pinch-ran as the Orioles’ automatic runner, went to third on pinch-hitter Terrin Vavra’s bunt, then scored on the decisive wild pitch.
“Total team effort from everybody today,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “Guys off the bench did a great job.”
Grayson Rodriguez, the Orioles’ top pitching prospect, didn’t allow a run over five innings in his fourth major league start. Mike Baumann, Bryan Baker and Cionel Pérez combined for two scoreless frames behind him. But Pérez gave up two hits to open the eighth, and after a sacrifice bunt moved both runners into scoring position, Spencer Torkelson delivered a sacrifice fly off Austin Voth, with Matt Vierling narrowly beating right fielder Ryan McKenna’s throw home.
The play provided the day’s first run in front of an announced crowd of 36,975, with nearly 14,000 of them being local youth softball and baseball players and coaches. The children in attendance brought energy early in support of the Orioles’ youth. After Grayson Rodriguez let the first batter he faced on for the fourth straight start, chants of “Strike him out!” broke out. The Orioles’ 23-year-old right-hander responded with three straight punchouts for his first scoreless first inning in the majors.
“That’s obviously been something that we’ve struggled with,” Grayson Rodriguez said. “The focus today was just to go out there and attack every inning like you’re the closer — three outs and then worry about the next one.”
A double and walk opened the second, but Grayson Rodriguez got former Oriole Tyler Nevin to ground into a double play. After another walk, Tigers second baseman Jonathan Schoop, who ranked among Baltimore’s top prospects alongside Eduardo Rodriguez a decade ago, lined out to center field to end the inning.
Two singles and a walk loaded the bases against Grayson Rodriguez in the third, but McKenna lunged forward to catch a line drive from Torkelson to leave the bags full. Grayson Rodriguez was an out from his first 1-2-3 inning in the fourth when Schoop singled to left field, but he followed by retiring the next four batters, three of them with strikeouts, to end his first scoreless major league outing. Through his first four starts for the Orioles, Grayson Rodriguez has a 5.12 ERA with 25 strikeouts in 19 1/3 innings.
“Grayson battled without his best stuff, honestly,” Hyde said. “A tough time for him finding his off-speed stuff early. Thought his fifth inning was his best inning by far from a stuff standpoint and a command standpoint. But he competed, thought we played really well defensively behind him. McKenna makes a huge catch for us in right field. But five scoreless without your best stuff is pretty good.”
Eduardo Rodriguez never made a start for Baltimore before he was traded to the Boston Red Sox for left-handed reliever Andrew Miller in 2014, but the 30-year-old has made a habit of dominating his former organization with a 2.79 ERA in 24 outings. The Orioles hardly threatened him Sunday, with a dive from Schoop to rob Gunnar Henderson for the first out of the sixth being Baltimore’s only contact close to a hit before Mountcastle fully delivered one.
“Really, I had no idea there was a perfect game or anything until I came out of the ball game,” Grayson Rodriguez said. “Then, obviously, you’re rooting for your guys to get a hit.”
But with the lefty out of the game in the eighth, the Orioles broke through. Mateo, back at shortstop for the first time after exiting Wednesday’s game with right hip discomfort, hustled for an infield single with one out, but a full display of his speed came a batter later. Pinch-hitting for McKenna, Santander laced a grounder down the left field line, with Mateo rapidly going from first all the way home after an aggressive send from third base coach Tony Mansolino. At second, Santander performed the Orioles’ sprinkler celebration with a mist of water erupting from Baltimore’s dugout.
“It was a great send,” Hyde said. “Mateo gets on you so fast as a third base coach because he’s moving. Such an exciting player. So fun to watch him run the bases.”
Around the horn
- Right-handed reliever Dillon Tate, set to begin a rehabilitation assignment Tuesday with High-A Aberdeen after opening the season on the 15-day injured list with a right elbow flexor strain, said he believes he’ll need five or six appearances, including back-to-back outings, before being activated sometime next month. Tate, who led the Orioles in games pitched each of the previous two seasons, said he’s used the recovery time to address aspects of his motion he felt needed improvement. “I’m looking forward to getting back out there and competing and seeing what the adjustments have done for me,” Tate said.
- Before his final game at Camden Yards, the Orioles recognized Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera with a pregame ceremony in which Hyde, bench coach Fredi González and Santander presented him with a brick from the B&O Warehouse with an engraved plaque. Cabrera, 40, is one of seven players in major league history with 500 home runs and 3,000 hits. González managed Cabrera with the then-Florida Marlins in 2007, and Santander played alongside the future Hall of Famer for their native Venezuela in this year’s World Baseball Classic.
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