Suárez's stabilizing start goes by the wayside as 'pen, offense falter

ST. PETERSBURG -- Whenever the Orioles have needed Albert Suárez to step up this year, the 34-year-old right-hander has delivered nearly every time. His successful return to the big leagues has been one of the top surprise stories of the season across baseball.

On Sunday afternoon, Suárez came through in his most impressive fashion yet. However, the game’s end result was again not what Suárez’s performance warranted.

Suárez blanked the Rays for a career-high 6 2/3 dominant innings, but Baltimore’s bullpen couldn’t keep Tampa Bay scoreless in a 2-1 loss at Tropicana Field. Curtis Mead had a go-ahead sac fly in the eighth off Craig Kimbrel, who allowed a run without yielding a hit.

The O’s (70-49) are again tied with the Yankees (70-49) atop the American League East after dropping their final regular-season game at The Trop in 2024. However, the Orioles went 6-1 (.857) here this year for their best single-season winning percentage at the ballpark, which has hosted the Rays since 1998.

“I mean, that’s the thing, we stay positive,” said Suárez, who has a 3.39 ERA in 24 games (16 starts). “We won the series, so I think we’re just going to get a rest for the off-day tomorrow, and then, come back next week and stay positive.”

For much of the day, Suárez was in control. He yielded only four hits and one walk while retiring 12 of the final 13 batters he faced, recording five strikeouts as well.

Suárez, who was out of MLB while pitching in Japan (2019-21) and Korea (2022-23), has bounced between Baltimore’s rotation and bullpen in his first year back in the U.S. The Venezuela native returned to a starting role earlier this week, when he made an emergency start on Tuesday in Toronto as Grayson Rodriguez (right lat/teres strain) was scratched.

Across his past two outings, Suárez has tossed 11 2/3 scoreless innings. Before Sunday, his longest MLB start had been a 6 1/3-inning effort as a rookie for the Giants that occurred 2,987 days earlier on June 7, 2016, against the Red Sox.

“Just a great performance by him. He put up zeros,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “He’s just such a pro. With the ‘pen kind of the way we were today and going that deep, he gave us a great chance.”

Although the Orioles’ bullpen was shorthanded due to heavy usage over the past week-plus, Hyde didn’t want to push Suárez further. After throwing 73 pitches in his previous start, Suárez got up to 94, exiting with two outs in the seventh to a standing ovation from the large contingent of O’s fans behind the third-base dugout.

Suárez -- who took a no-decision for the second straight start -- felt he could have pitched deeper, but he also understood the situation.

“I don’t control that. I only control what I can do on the mound. For me, just do what is the best to help the team,” Suárez said. “Every time I’m out there, I feel like I can keep going.”

At that point, the game turned in Tampa Bay’s favor. Left-hander Cionel Pérez immediately gave up a pinch-hit double to right-handed-hitting José Caballero, then a game-tying pinch-hit RBI single to right-handed-hitting Dylan Carlson.

In a tie game in the eighth, the Orioles inserted Kimbrel, who hasn’t been serving in the closer’s role for much of the second half amid some struggles. The 36-year-old veteran hasn’t recorded a save since July 7 and hasn’t pitched in a save situation since July 25.

Kimbrel issued three walks (one intentional) and allowed four stolen bases in the inning, as the Rays used small-ball maneuvers to manufacture the winning run.

“The challenge has been pretty apparent: throwing the ball over the plate when needed to,” said Kimbrel, who has an 8.31 ERA in 8 2/3 innings over his past nine outings. “I would say, overall, there’s times my stuff has played and gotten me through some things. But all in all, my consistency has just been really terrible. And when you’re inconsistent, you put guys on base and things happen. That’s what happened today.”

The bullpen wasn’t the only group that couldn’t support Suárez’s gem. The offense was shut down for much of the day, with Anthony Santander’s leadoff homer in the fourth -- his career-high 35th home run of the season -- producing Baltimore’s lone run.

The Orioles’ season-long 10-game road trip had ups and downs, as they finished 5-5 on the swing. They split a four-game series in Cleveland, lost two of three in Toronto and then rebounded to take two of three from Tampa Bay.

After Monday’s off-day, the O’s will play 10 of their next 13 games at Camden Yards, beginning with a six-game homestand vs. the Nationals and the Red Sox that starts Tuesday.

“Today, we scored one run. We had our opportunities to score more,” Hyde said. “Make it really tough on ourselves to try to win a 1-0 game there, with a few of our guys not available out of the ‘pen today. But we gave ourselves a shot. The games we won, we played really well, and the games we lost, we could have done a lot of better things.”