Orioles' bullpen melts down in 11-2 loss to Blue Jays

Jacob Calvin Meyer, The Baltimore Sun on Sep 14, 2025

Published in Baseball

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TORONTO — Tony Mansolino went all out to win Saturday’s game, pulling his starter at 63 pitches and using four relievers to get through the final three innings.

“We’re going for the win right there,” the Orioles’ interim manager said Saturday. “It’s an important game for us to try to win a game and stay in this series.”

Mansolino’s makeshift bullpen couldn’t hold onto that lead, losing in walk-off fashion, and the gassed relief corps imploded Sunday in an 11-2 defeat that ended with a position player pitching for Baltimore.

The Orioles planned to operate a bullpen game Sunday after skipping Dean Kremer’s most recent start because of minor forearm soreness. Albert Suárez started the game and did what he almost always does, delivering three innings of one-run ball with five strikeouts.

The two relievers after him couldn’t follow suit.

Left-hander Grant Wolfram allowed three hits and two runs in the fourth inning, and newcomer Carson Ragsdale was tagged for nine hits and eight runs across three frames in his MLB debut. Ragsdale, an August waiver claim who was recalled Sunday, was serviceable in the fifth and sixth innings, allowing one run in each, but the right-hander allowed the first seven batters of the frame to reach base, with six of them coming around to score.

The Orioles’ only two runs came on solo homers from Coby Mayo and Colton Cowser in the second and seventh innings, respectively. Baltimore is 69-80 and two losses away from guaranteeing a losing season.

Instant analysis

No one player could have single-handedly prevented what the Orioles went through in April and May. After two months, the Orioles were 18 games under .500 and one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball.

But one player whose presence was missed perhaps as much as any other is Suárez. The 35-year-old’s team-first mentality and do-it-all skill set were critical to helping the 2024 Orioles make the playoffs — and they were sorely missed this season.

Suárez, who finished second on the team in innings pitched last season, injured his shoulder in late March and didn’t return until Sept. 2. He has a 2.31 ERA in 11 2/3 innings this year and a 3.59 ERA since his return to MLB in 2024.

“It’s a Swiss Army knife in a lot of ways,” Orioles interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “I think another way you would have seen him, we probably would’ve seen a possible three-inning save [Saturday], given that we didn’t have to use them today. We have a lot of trust in Albert. Obviously, we’re willing to start him here in a big game, we’re willing to close him out in a big game. Not a lot of people have the skill set to kind of bounce back and forth and do both.”

By the numbers

The Ravens have one of the best collections of tight ends in the NFL with Mark Andrews, Isaiah Likely and Charlie Kolar. The Orioles might be assembling their own tight end room, and they all pitched Sunday. The average height and weight of Suárez (6-foot-3, 235 pounds), Grant Wolfram (6-7, 240 pounds) and Ragsdale (6-8, 235 pounds) is 6-6 and 237 pounds.

On deck

The last time Kyle Bradish pitched in Chicago, he threw seven no-hit innings with 11 strikeouts. That no-hit bid in May 2024 ended in the eighth when reliever Danny Coulombe gave up a solo homer. Bradish will take the ball Monday at the White Sox’s Rate Field for the fourth time since he underwent Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery last June. The Orioles haven’t announced their starters for Tuesday and Wednesday.

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