MIAMI – Sometime between their late-night flight out of New York on Monday and their 4:30 a.m. bed time Tuesday, the Orioles must have stopped at a pharmacy and picked up a Band-Aid.
They had to. Five straight losses, all by five or more runs, opened a wound in Baltimore’s side.
A 9-7 win over the sub-.500 Marlins won’t be enough by itself to clear up Baltimore’s ailments. Tuesday’s starter, Chris Bassitt, fought control issues across four ugly innings. The bottom of the lineup continued to drudge through hapless at-bats. A defensive mishap almost cost Baltimore the game.
But those are problems for another day. At LoanDepot Park, the Orioles just had to stop the bleeding Tuesday night.
Gunnar Henderson seemed to expel the frustrations of a four-game sweep in New York with his first swing of the game, ripping a 102-mph single through the right side. It kicked off a three-run first inning for the Orioles, who held a lead for the first time since the first game of their April 30 doubleheader against the Astros.
More runs came in the third and fifth innings. Pete Alonso, one of the few Orioles who swung a hot bat against the Yankees, kept hitting. He doubled twice, walked once and scored four times, thrice on Samuel Basallo knocks.
Basallo finished a home run shy of the cycle, collecting his first four-RBI game of his big league career.
But Basallo needed a pick-me-up after an errant throw on an Esteury Ruiz stolen base allowed the Marlins to tie the game 7-7 in the eighth inning. His fellow backstop granted it.
Adley Rutschman, pinch hitting in the ninth, delivered a two-out RBI single to give Baltimore the lead for good.
Still, the same old issues were evident.
Bassitt slogged through another start, allowing four runs, walking three batters, hitting two more and throwing a wild pitch.
The first five hitters in the Orioles’ starting lineup combined for seven hits, three walks and six RBIs. But the production fell off from there: the bottom four hitters went 2-for-18.
An overworked bullpen surrendered the Orioles’ lead, too.
It was not a pleasant homecoming for reliever Anthony Nunez. Pitching in front of more than 20 friends and family members, Nunez tossed a scoreless sixth before allowing back-to-back homers in the seventh.
Coby Mayo, also playing in his home state for the first time since becoming a big leaguer, went 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
Now comes the hard part: turning one win into two. The Orioles’ two most lopsided wins of the season – 10-3 victories over the Red Sox on April 24 and the Astros a week later – both preceded one-sided losses – a 17-1 embarrassment and an 11-5 bludgeoning.
But on Tuesday night, they did enough to end the skid.
