The Orioles’ latest loss came with a costly side effect: more bodies leaving the field and a lineup that may be running on fumes.
Baltimore fell 9-5 to the Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday night at Camden Yards, and the late innings brought injury trouble for both Gunnar Henderson and Blaze Alexander. Henderson exited after fouling a ball off the back of his left knee, while Alexander left with back spasms after hurting himself while fielding Patrick Bailey’s bunt in the seventh inning. By the end of it, backup catcher Carlos Narváez had even been pressed into second base for the first time in his professional career.
Narváez pinch-ran for Henderson, and after Alexander was replaced by Christian Encarnacion-Strand at third, Jackson Holliday shifted to shortstop for the ninth.
“He fouled the ball off his back knee, off the patella tendon, and so if anyone’s gotten hit there, it locks up pretty good,” manager Craig Albernaz said about Henderson. “Gunnar being how tough he is tried to gut it out, but running to second base, it just didn’t look right, so that’s how I made the move with Narváez because Blaze was already coming out.”
Henderson, who was wearing a black compression sleeve on his knee, moved carefully around the clubhouse afterward. He has missed only one game all season, but Wednesday now looks doubtful.
“It should be just day-to-day honestly,” Henderson said. “See how it feels in the morning.
So, yeah, didn’t feel great running out there, but we’ll see how it feels in the morning. Right now, it’s fine.
It’s just when I was trying to stop out there, it really didn’t feel good, and, yeah, should be day-to-day and should be fine tomorrow. We’ll see.”
If both Henderson and Alexander are unavailable, Jeremiah Jackson could be brought back up from Triple-A Norfolk.
Samuel Basallo also drew attention during the game after being checked by Albernaz and athletic trainer Ben Fraser, but he stayed in after missing a month with right shoulder inflammation.
“He’s still dealing with some right shoulder soreness,” Albernaz said. “I think it’s just soreness.
We’re checking on him throughout the game. He said he was fine.
“I was talking to him pretty much after every inning to kind of see where he was at. He wouldn’t come out and said he was fine.
He had a few backswings and foul tips. Life of a catcher.”
The bigger problem for Baltimore, though, was the start it got from Brandon Young. The right-hander, who had been one of the Orioles’ better surprises this season, was tagged for six runs on eight hits in just 3 2/3 innings, his shortest outing of the year, as Cleveland cruised in front of 13,279 at Camden Yards.
Young has now thrown 140 2/3 major league innings and another 16 2/3 in the minors, and this one looked like the kind of night where a long season catches up to a pitcher.
“Just put some balls in the middle of the plate,” Young said. “They made me pay for it. No, I feel good, no excuse for it.”
The Orioles are now 70-76, four games back of the Guardians, who are 74-72 and hold the final wild-card spot. Cleveland also clinched the season series between the teams. Baltimore has dropped seven of its last eight and has only 16 games left.
“I mean, it’s right there in front of us,” Henderson said. “We win ballgames, we’re going to put ourselves right in it, right there.
I mean, we’re in it right now. But obviously, it comes down to winning ballgames, and that’s all we can do at this point.
It’s pretty plain and simple. Win ballgames.”
Cleveland did its damage early. Entering the night, Tanner Bibee had the majors’ worst run support at 3.03 runs per game, even less than Shane Baz had received from the Orioles at 3.14. The Guardians doubled that kind of support in the first three innings against Young.
Steven Kwan doubled and scored on Jo Adell’s first-inning single. In the second, Cleveland piled on four more runs with an RBI single from Patrick Bailey and a three-run homer from Travis Bazzana, his 11th. Petey Halpin then added a run-scoring single to make it 6-0.
Baltimore answered and briefly made it interesting. The Orioles scored once in the fourth on Basallo’s infield out.
In the fifth, Colton Cowser and Leody Taveras doubled, and Taveras snapped an 0-for-19 stretch with an RBI double. Holliday then reached on a single off Nathaniel Lowe’s glove to bring Taveras home.
Pete Alonso followed with his 34th homer, a two-run shot that pushed his RBI total to 97 and cut the deficit to 6-5.
Bibee was done after 4 1/3 innings, charged with five runs on six hits. Tim Herrin came in and retired all four batters he faced, and then Craig Yoho, Hunter Gaddis and Cade Smith combined for 4 2/3 hitless innings.
The Guardians slammed the door in the seventh. With runners on first and second and one out, Angel Martinéz grounded to first, and Alonso threw to second to try to start a double play.
The ball instead hit off Jo Adell’s helmet, allowing José Ramírez to score. Brayan Rocchio followed with a bases-loaded single that brought in Adell and Martínez, stretching the lead to 9-5.
For the Orioles, the night left them with more than just another loss. If Henderson and Alexander can’t go, the lineup gets thinner fast.
Young summed up his own part of the night without much embellishment.
“Didn’t do my job, and there’s no excuse for it.”
In the minors, High-A Frederick broke open Game 1 of the South Atlantic League playoffs with a nine-run eighth inning in a 13-1 win over Greensboro. Boston Bateman struck out 10 in five innings and allowed one run on two hits. Enddy Azocar hit a three-run homer, and Ty Head also homered and drove in three.
Double-A Chesapeake got a big night from Vance Honeycutt, who homered twice in an 11-3 win over Richmond. Honeycutt has five homers in 17 games since his promotion from Frederick and is batting .344.
Ethan Anderson hit a three-run homer, his 20th, and Aron Estrada added his 24th, a two-run shot. Caden Hunter gave up three unearned runs on two hits in four innings, walking two and striking out four.
Shane Baz (5-15) is set to start Wednesday night at 6:35 against Foster Griffin (15-4, 3.26).
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