CHICAGO — Facing a Chicago Cubs lineup of nine right-handed hitters, Orioles left-hander Cole Irvin’s secondary pitches were going to be “important,” manager Brandon Hyde emphasized before the game. One of them let Irvin down repeatedly.
In Friday’s series-opening 10-3 loss at Wrigley Field, Irvin allowed three solo home runs in the third inning, all on his change-up, before Chicago broke the game open against three Baltimore relievers with a six-run sixth.
“Interesting just to see my second-best pitch, arguably — I rely on my fastball, but my change-up’s kind of the bread and butter,” Irvin said. “Just the command there wasn’t good with it.”
Making his second start back with the Orioles (43-26) after a stretch in Triple-A Norfolk’s rotation, Irvin threw two scoreless innings before having trouble locating his change-up in third. Miguel Amaya homered on one in the middle of the strike zone to open the inning, and after Irvin retired the next two batters, Dansby Swanson did the same. Christopher Morel then swatted one in the bottom part of the zone out to left field. Irvin bemoaned how he set up the pitch rather than its location.
“Shoot, two of them were just bad locations, bad pitches. That’s what it comes down to,” he said. “And then the last one, I felt like it was just a bad sequence because I think the location actually wasn’t too bad, it was down in the zone, but he just wasn’t fooled by it.”
It was the first time Baltimore allowed three home runs in one inning since Sept. 11, 2021, when Keegan Akin didn’t allow a hit through six frames in the second game of a doubleheader before the Toronto Blue Jays scored 11 runs on four home runs in the seventh.
Irvin’s three home runs allowed in the third matched the total he surrendered with his change-up in 181 innings last year with the Oakland Athletics. The Orioles acquired Irvin, along with minor league pitcher Kyle Virbitsky, in a trade with Oakland this offseason for infield prospect Darell Hernaiz, hoping to add a dependable and controllable arm with strong command to their rotation. After Friday’s four-inning outing, Irvin has allowed 19 earned runs in 22 innings as a starter for Baltimore.
“It was just balls that were in the middle part of the plate,” Hyde said. “Besides those three homers, I thought he did a nice job.”
When Irvin kept the ball in the yard, he was largely effective Friday, though Hyde appeared hesitant to allow him to work through the Cubs’ lineup a third time. After Nick Madrigal, Chicago’s No. 9 hitter, opened the fifth inning with a single on Irvin’s 68th pitch, Hyde went to his bullpen. In two starts back with Baltimore, Irvin hasn’t thrown more than 72 pitches; opposing hitters went 7-for-10 against him once he went beyond 75 pitches in his first three starts.
Hyde said the move was the result of the top hitters in Chicago’s lineup having success against left-handed pitchers while he had a right-handed reliever in Mike Baumann rested and available. Irvin, who went at least six innings in 19 of his 30 starts last year with Oakland, said he felt he could have made an adjustment with his change-up, which he threw only twice more after Morel’s home run, if he faced the Cubs’ order a third time.
“I know how to pitch three times through the order, so we’ll eventually get there,” Irvin said. “Those decisions aren’t up to me, and as much as I’d like to stay in that game and somehow someway show the team that I can pitch here and provide the team innings, I just wasn’t dealt those cards, I guess.”
Baltimore scraped across one run in each of the fourth and fifth innings on a single by Austin Hays and a double by Jorge Mateo, respectively, but stranded the tying run at third base in both the fifth and sixth.
After finishing off the fifth, Baumann opened the bottom half of the sixth with a pair of walks. Cionel Pérez then balked both into scoring position and allowed a two-run single to Ian Happ. After another walk and a sacrifice bunt, Reed Garrett inherited two runners from Pérez and allowed both and two of his own runs to score. Pérez, one of Hyde’s most trustworthy relievers in 2022, has a 5.55 ERA and 2.05 WHIP.
“We had three walks and a balk [in the inning],” Hyde said. “If we don’t balk there, it’s a double-play ball that Happ hits, and game might be a little bit different. But yeah, just not real good command there in that inning.”
Longtime Oriole Trey Mancini doubled off Garrett to open the seventh and eventually scored Chicago’s 10th run. Hays’ second RBI single in the eighth followed Ryan O’Hearn’s third hit of the afternoon.
“It’s a long game, anything can happen,” O’Hearn said. “We put up eight in the eighth against the [New York] Yankees couple weeks ago. That’s something that stands out in my mind. When we get down like that, we’re not ever out of it. We’ve got too many good players, too many tough at-bats up and down the lineup, so just got to try to limit the damage, and then, on offense, we’ve got to put together good at-bats, compete every pitch, and you never know what’s gonna happen.
“We’ll forget about today as soon as we get out of here and come back with a fresh perspective and get after it tomorrow.”
Around the horn
— Utility player Terrin Vavra was placed on Triple-A Norfolk’s injured list with a right shoulder strain.
— Catcher Mark Kolozsvary cleared waivers after being designated for assignment and elected to become a free agent.
