O’s ‘used to craziness’ — and continue to rise above it

PHILADELPHIA — It was maybe becoming that Colton Cowser — a participant who did not begin the sport — made arguably the 2 greatest performs within the Orioles’ wild 3-2 series-opening victory over the Phillies on Monday night time.

That is simply the type of night time it was because the Orioles pulled out yet one more one-run victory in entrance of a sold-out crowd — one which featured loads of Baltimore followers — at Residents Financial institution Park.

For starters, the Orioles had been coming off a taxing four-game collection victory over the Rays during which they took sole possession of first place in the American League East. On prime of that, every of Baltimore’s prime three high-leverage relievers was unavailable Monday. And if that weren’t sufficient, Phillies starter Cristopher Sánchez had a profession sport on the mound.

Making issues worse, the Orioles misplaced heart fielder Aaron Hicks within the third inning when he sustained a left hamstring damage on a diving catch — and replay later confirmed that he really dropped the ball. It balanced out within the fifth when Anthony Santander thought he made a diving catch to rob Jake Cave, however the umpires dominated he trapped it — and replay was inconclusive.

The night time additionally featured Jordan Westburg’s first career home runan ejection (of Phillies shortstop Trea Turner) and the Orioles throwing out the potential go-ahead run on the plate on the identical play that the tying run scored within the eighth.

“I really feel like we play fairly a little bit of most of these video games, so our guys are used to craziness in the previous few innings,” stated supervisor Brandon Hyde, whose membership improved to an AL-best 19-9 in one-run video games. “We do not actually blow folks out, and we do not get blown out fairly often. Often, the video games are tight.”

That was definitely the case Monday, when Dean Kremer held the Phillies to only one run over seven innings to outduel Sánchez, who had a career-high eight strikeouts over seven innings of two-run ball. These runs got here on solo homers by Westburg and a Statcast-projected 451-foot shot by Ryan Mountcastle.

And with each Yennier Cano and Félix Bautista unavailable after pitching 4 of the previous 5 days (together with two straight), Kremer’s bounceback gem couldn’t have come at a greater time.

“It makes it simpler to sleep — nonetheless not simple to sleep, however yeah,” stated Kremer, who allowed 5 runs over 4 2/3 innings Wednesday towards the Dodgers. “Simply attempting to offer the bullpen a break. They did an unbelievable job in [St. Petersburg] this previous collection, and we’re simply seeking to choose them up.”

With Mike Baumann additionally getting the night time off along with Baltimore’s star aid duo, Hyde turned to Danny Coulombe with a one-run lead within the eighth. Then, with two on and two out, Bryan Baker entered to face Nick Castellanos, who lined a single to left-center discipline.

Cowser raced into the hole to discipline the ball, then fired a throw to shortstop Jorge Mateo, who relayed it to the plate. With Kyle Schwarber having already scored the tying run, catcher James McCann corralled the off-target throw and dived again throughout house to tag Bryce Harper a second earlier than he slapped the plate.

“When the ball was hit to my proper, I used to be actually simply attempting to get one thing in that Jorge may deal with, and he made an ideal choose — I type of short-hopped him,” Cowser stated. “It ended up being a extremely shut play, however I am glad we bought him.”

Cowser rapidly adopted his first profession outfield help together with his first profession extra-base hit — a go-ahead RBI double within the prime of the ninth off Phillies nearer Craig Kimbrel.

“Like we speak about loads, it is anyone totally different each night time,” Hyde stated. “And tonight, it was a number of totally different guys.”

Even with Cowser promptly restoring the Orioles’ one-run lead, Hyde as soon as once more needed to discover an alternate for the ultimate three outs.

Hyde opted to go along with left-hander Cionel Perezwho recorded two fast outs earlier than permitting a hard-hit single to pinch-hitter Alec Bohm that deflected off Mateo. Pérez walked pinch-hitter J.T. Realmuto to place the potential profitable run on base, however the southpaw escaped by getting Johan Rojas to floor right into a forceout.

The end result was Pérez notching his second profession save — and his first of 2023. On an evening when Westburg and Cowser recorded firsts of their very own, it was simply the newest instance of the resilience of an Orioles workforce eyeing its first postseason look since 2016 — and its first pennant since 1983.

“If we wish to go the place we wish to go, we have got to produce other guys step up and be capable to pitch in these sorts of conditions,” Hyde stated. “We will not pitch Cano and Bautista each single night time. And Pérez bought by it tonight.”