DENVER -- Luis De León didn’t get a gentle introduction to the majors. His first big league outing came in the kind of spot managers usually try to avoid for a debuting reliever, and the Orioles left-hander was on the mound when the game tilted for good in a 4-2 loss to the Rockies at Coors Field.
Craig Albernaz said earlier Tuesday that he hoped not to “ambush” De León and “throw him into the fire right away.” The game had other plans. By the time De León entered in the seventh inning, the score was tied, the pressure was real, and Baltimore needed him to navigate a jammed-up inning in a tight race.
The 23-year-old, Baltimore’s No. 7 prospect per MLB Pipeline, looked the part for most of his debut. He worked 11 of his 15 pitches for strikes, ran his sinker up to 97.5 mph and averaged 96.7 mph with it, and got Hunter Goodman to swing and miss for his first career strikeout on a slider. Albernaz liked what he saw.
“He wasn't fazed at all. That was outstanding work tonight,” Albernaz said.
“Obviously, the two-run shot was tough, but he made pitches. It was one bad pitch, but it was really impressive.”
That one mistake came on an 0-1 slider that stayed up in the zone and got hammered by TJ Rumfield for a Statcast-projected 404-foot homer to right-center. The damage was amplified by an earlier play in the inning, when Jackson Holliday’s missed-catch error allowed Mickey Moniak to reach second base after a ball drifted toward the right-field line. What might have been a solo shot became a two-run swing.
De León didn’t hide from it, but he didn’t let it spin him off track, either.
“I was excited, but honestly, I didn’t have too much time to think about it,” De León said via team interpreter Brandon Quinones. “My job is just to try to get in there and be ready to compete.”
And after the homer?
“Obviously, I gave up the homer there, something I can’t take back in that moment,” De León said. “So after that happens, just controlling what I can control.”
Kyle Bradish, who gave Baltimore five innings and two runs, saw the same thing from the dugout view.
“I thought he was in the zone really good, just hung a breaking ball,” Bradish said. “And that’s what guys at this level do. They hit hanging breaking balls.”
Holliday, whose error snapped the Orioles’ 10-game streak without one, took responsibility for the play that helped set up the inning.
“They’re not exactly the easiest plays. Big leaguers make it look probably too easy.
But I’ve got to make that play, and it unfortunately led to a homer, which usually stuff like that does,” Holliday said. “I wish I could have made that play for [De León], because he’d have probably had a clean inning after that.
He attacked the zone. Excited to have him up here and to make plays for him.”
The Orioles had shifted De León into relief at Triple-A Norfolk in mid-August, viewing him as a possible help piece for the stretch run even though his long-term path could still be as a starter. With Baltimore sitting at 69-70 and just 1 1/2 games back of the Guardians for the third American League Wild Card spot, the club brought him up as rosters expanded from 26 to 28 on Tuesday.
Albernaz made it clear this was not likely a one-and-done look.
“We're more than comfortable going there with him,” Albernaz said, “and he threw the ball extremely well.”
After the game, De León held onto the ball from his first career strikeout and said he plans to give it to his mother, Lydia Ramirez, the next time he sees her. His family remains in the Dominican Republic, and he hopes to get them visas so they can watch him pitch in the United States by next year.
“She really does mean everything,” De León said. “Her and my dad.”
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