A missed opportunity

O’s can’t back up Jordan Lyles in loss to Tigers

DETROIT—Justforgood measure, the Orioles were presented another golden opportunity. Left-hander Gregory Soto entered out of the bullpen in the ninth inning and promptly hit the firsttwobattershefaced,then walkedthebasesloadedwith one out.

And yet, once Soto was replaced by right-hander WillVest,Baltimoredidwhat Baltimore had done all night —squanderthechance.

The Orioles left the bases loaded in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, a self-destructive tendency that resulted in a 4-2 defeat in the series opener against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park.

There was never a lack of chances for the Orioles (14-19), just a lack of followthrough. Baltimore stranded 14baserunners—thesecond most this season, behind 15 stranded April 15 — and hit 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position, with strikeouts fromRamónUríasandRylan Bannon the final culprits. Beforethat,therewasCedric Mullins’popoutintheeighth and Jorge Mateo’s strikeout in the seventh. They left two runners on base in the first andsecondinnings,too.

“They have some good armsinthebullpen,”manager Brandon Hyde said. “Just didn’tgetthebighittonight.”

The anemic offensive display didn’t help righthander Jordan Lyles, who pitched well until the sixth inning barring the damage from designated hitter Miguel Cabrera.

If the production from Cabrera on Friday night wasn’t evidence enough, the numbers beyond the fence

in left-center field should providethenecessarycontext of what kind of hitter the 39-year-oldstillis.

They began the evening againsttheOriolesat503and 3,014 — the number of home runs and hits Cabrera has clubbed during his career. By the end of the night, the Tigers star changed those numbers to 504 and 3,016, continuing a rise through Major League Baseball’s record books.

Lyles had pitched well for Baltimore for much of his 5 innings, but as Cabrera has done so frequently in his career — as those numbers prove — two swings helped unravelLyles’night.

TheOriolesneededlength from Lyles, coming off a bullpen game against St. Louis in whichsixrelieverscombined to cover a 3-2 win. It’s a role Lyles prides himself on, too — he didn’t want to leave the game last week, Hyde said, even after pitching into the eighth inning. He views himself as an innings eater, coming off a 180-inning seasonin2021.

“Would’vebeennicetoget another inning or two,” Lyles said.

Last week, when Lyles started the first game of the Sunday doubleheader, Lyles delivered the length Hyde hoped for to alleviate the potential strain on the bullpen before a road trip, allowing two earned runs in 7 innings.

And in the series opener Friday, Lyles looked well on hiswaytoanotherdeepouting as he navigated five innings of one-run ball on 70 pitches. Acrosstheprevious six starts, Orioles starters had walked three combined batters. But Lyles walked a batter in each of the first three innings Friday, and while he worked around the first two, Cabrera’s right-center field double plated Javier Báez in the third.