Orioles’ bullpen continues to shine in crucial spots

The Orioles’ 8-5 win over the Detroit Tigers on Monday night was important. Every game they’re playing this week is important. The trade deadline is August 3^rd at 6 p.m., and the Orioles must be a true contender in order for them to be aggressive at the deadline.

There are five games remaining between now and next Monday—two more against the Tigers and three at home against Philadelphia.

Currently, they’re 52-55. The closest they’ve come to .500 in recent weeks was on July 19^th when they completed a seven-game winning streak with a 49-51 record.

Since then, they lost two of three at Boston and two of three against Atlanta last weekend before Monday night’s win.

Along with Seattle and Houston, the Orioles are two games out of the final American League wild-card spot.

Relievers continue to excel

Kyle Bradish equaled his season highs by allowing five runs on 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings. Fortunately, the Orioles’ bullpen continued to display its excellence.

Yennier Cano, Grant Wolfram, Andrew Kittredge and Rico Garcia combined to allow one hit in 4 1/3 scoreless innings. They didn’t walk a batter and struck out six.

While the Orioles’ bullpen has been the best in baseball since June 16^th, Monday night’s performance was extraordinary. Kittredge was helped by centerfielder Colton Cowser’s spectacular sprawling diving catch on Detroit’s Zach McKinstry in the eighth.

“They’ve been doing an awesome job all year,” bullpen coach Hank Conger said on Sunday.

“I think definitely when you look at our bullpen, we’ve asked a lot of different guys … when you look at especially service time, a lot of inexperience, so a lot of guys have really stepped up over the course of the year.”

It was Garcia who was called on in the ninth inning on Monday. Garcia had allowed home runs in each of his last three appearances. That was after not allowing even a hit in his first 11 games of the season.

“It’s just obviously the past couple of games haven’t gone the way he’s wanted, but for us, he’s been probably a huge reason as far as where the bullpen’s at and how we’ve handled a lot of different situations,” Conger said.

“So it’s the bullpen, it’s the ebbs and flows. You understand the volatility of when you don’t give up a run for the first month, you’re a hero, and then you give up one in like the eighth or ninth. So it’s just, it goes up and down, but watching him and his confidence every single day, he’s gonna be fine and he’s gonna be a big reason why we’re gonna end up where we are at the end of the year.”

Ryan Helsley, the Orioles’ closer, is on the 60-day injured list with right elbow inflammation, and he’s not eligible to return until August 29^th.

Without him, manager Craig Albernaz has been working his way through games without a discernable pattern.

Cano entered Monday’s game in the fifth, only the second time this season, and the first since May 7^th that he’d been used that early.

“He’s been awesome,” Conger said. “Obviously, I wasn’t here last year, but the couple adjustments that have been made in the second half of last year, and for him to really put in the work and kind of roll that over into this year, and just to see that, it’s awesome seeing him, because the preparation and everything is just so consistent every day.

“He shows up, he does his work, it doesn’t matter whether it’s early in the game, late in the game, he’s coming in. So the consistency in seeing that and the mindset, it’s just been really, really seeing progress along as a player.”

Cano has one save this season. Garcia has five, three behind Helsley’s club-leading eight. Kittredge, Anthony Nunez and Tyler Wells each have three. Wolfram, Albert Suárez, and Cam Sanders, who’s at Triple-A Norfolk each have one.

Conger believes the ninth inning is different.

“I think you definitely have to have a certain mindset,” he said. “I know you get a little bit of anxiety when the eighth and ninth inning rolls around, but I think that’s just really a testament to a lot of our guys and the mindsets and where they’re at as far as just like understanding, ‘I’m coming in, I’m doing my job.

“It doesn’t matter if the seventh, eighth inning.’ Obviously as a team we have to get kind of creative with certain matchups and certain pockets for certain guys, but they’ve all stepped up, and the mindset’s just been like, ‘Give me the ball, let me do my job,’ and they’ve been doing a great job at it this year.”

Call for questions: I answer Orioles questions most weekdays. Please send yours to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com