MIAMI — Disaster struck the Orioles in the third inning of their series opener against the Miami Marlins on Tuesday night when they lost second baseman Jorge Mateo and starting pitcher Albert Suarez on consecutive plays.
With no outs and a runner on first base, Mateo suffered a left elbow injury in a collision with shortstop Gunnar Henderson. The infielders collided with each other while trying to retrieve a ground ball up the middle, and Henderson’s leg caught Mateo’s arm awkwardly in the ground. Mateo immediately fell down in pain and left the game after a conversation with head coach Brian Ebel. Jordan Westburg took Mateo’s place at second base, while Ramón Urías replaced Westburg at third.
Mateo’s elbow X-rays came back negative, manager Brandon Hyde said after the game, a 6-3 loss to Baltimore. Although Mateo is undergoing additional testing to determine the severity of the injury, the Orioles are bringing second base prospect Connor Norby to Miami in case they have to make a corresponding trade, a source with direct knowledge of the decision told The Baltimore Sun.
“He’s going to have some more tests, including an MRI,” Hyde said of Mateo. “Right now, he’s day to day, but we don’t know the extent of his injuries.”
After Mateo was injured, the next batter of the third inning, second baseman Otto López, hit a 102 mph line drive that deflected off Suárez’s right foot and landed in foul territory near the Marlins’ dugout along the third-base line. Hyde and assistant athletic trainer Patrick Wesley met the 34-year-old right-hander on the mound and removed him from the game after a brief conversation.
Suarez also received good news from X-rays and was diagnosed with a shin contusion. Hyde expressed optimism that the injury was not serious and said the game situation contributed to the decision to go to the bullpen.
“It hurts more now than when I was hit,” Suarez said. “The adrenaline is down and it hurts, but the X-rays are negative, so it’s just swollen and painful. Nothing else.”
Keegan Akin, already warming up in the bullpen after a poor start by Suarez, entered the game with the bases loaded and no outs. The left-hander allowed two inherited runners to score before getting out of the inning with the Orioles trailing 6-3. Suarez’s final line included six earned runs on eight hits in two innings.
Mateo, 29, has been the Orioles’ second baseman for most of the season, batting .229 and having a .668 OPS while stealing 13 bases and playing solid defense up the middle. It would be Mateo’s second time on the injured list this season after an errant hit from Cedric Mullins in the sideline circle hit him in the head on June 2 and forced him to go on the injured list with a concussion.
Suarez, meanwhile, has been one of baseball’s most remarkable stories this season, entering Tuesday with a 2.82 ERA in his first major league season since 2017. The veteran has been invaluable to an Orioles rotation that lost Kyle Bradish, Tyler Wells and John Means to season-ending elbow injuries, making 12 starts and going 5-3.
Even before Suarez’s injury, the Orioles had added a reinforcement to the rotation. Hyde said after the game that promising pitcher Chayce McDermott, added to the reserve team Tuesday, will start Wednesday in his MLB debut, pushing Corbin Burnes to Thursday to give the All-Star an extra day of rest. McDermott, a 25-year-old right-hander, has a 3.96 ERA at Triple-A Norfolk this season.
Although their pitching staff has been hit hard by injuries, the Orioles’ starting position players have remained largely healthy this season. Mateo’s previous stint on the injured list gave Norby his first taste of the major leagues.
Bullpens shut down both teams
Neither team managed to score another run after the starting pitchers left.
Miami came out swinging against Suárez, scoring four runs in the second inning on a first-pitch solo home run by Jesús Sánchez, two stolen bases — one of which forced a throwing error by catcher Adley Rutschman — and a two-run double by Jazz Chisholm Jr. on a slow ground ball to right field.
The Orioles showed some early fighting spirit against Marlins starting pitcher Kyle Tyler, taking a 1-0 lead in the first after Rutschman scored on a Westburg single. They then answered Miami’s four-run inning with a double in the third, as Ryan O’Hearn and Colton Cowser each singled to bring the Orioles within three runs. However, groundouts hampered their offense in the top of the inning; Mullins was thrown out trying to steal second base in the second inning, and Cowser was thrown out at third base for the final out of the next inning.
“We had a couple of rallies that they stopped,” Mullins said. “I got picked off at second base. Cowser had the out at third base, but he got picked off. We kind of got stopped and they took advantage of it.”
But the Orioles couldn’t get any further. Despite a parade of relievers that included Akin, Burch Smith, Vinny Nittoli and Bryan Baker pitching five scoreless innings, the Marlins’ bullpen matched their performance, capped by a dominant ninth inning from former Orioles reliever Tanner Scott. It was the 17th save of the season for Scott, who is a potential trade candidate heading into next week’s trade deadline.
“We just didn’t play well,” Hyde said. “We haven’t played our best baseball in a while in my opinion. We made a lot of mistakes early in the game. We ran out of time a couple times. We’ve got to play better.”
The loss dropped the Orioles to 23-21 since June 1 and 60-40 overall, although the New York Yankees also lost to maintain Baltimore’s 1 1/2-game lead in the American League East.
Baltimore Sun reporter Jacob Calvin Meyer contributed to this article.
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