BALTIMORE — Under different circumstances, manager AJ Hinch very likely would’ve pulled starting pitcher Matt Manning after five laborious innings Wednesday night.
But one of the chores left for the Tigers this month is to squeeze as many healthy innings as they can out of the second-year right-hander who missed more than three months with shoulder inflammation. This was his 12th start and he’d thrown just 57.1 innings.
The more innings he can log before the end of the year the fewer the restrictions he would have going into 2023. At least that was the prevailing theory.
There were consequences for that pursuit on this night as the Orioles were able to salvage the finale and end a nine-game losing streak to the Tigers with a 8-1 win.
Manning was grinding from the start. Going into the sixth inning, he’d got into six three-ball counts, walked three and had already thrown 83 pitches.
But there was no handshake after five.
Manning walked the leadoff hitting in the sixth, which got lefty Daniel Norris up and warming in the bullpen. But Manning got Austin Hays to fly out to left and at that point, Manning hadn’t allowed a hit since the third inning, though he’d walked a couple.
Hinch decided to let it ride.
It’s uncertain whether Norris was ready or not, but Hinch let Manning face left-handed hitting Kyle Stowers and he lined a 2-1 fastball into the seats in left field, expanding the Orioles lead to five runs.
Manning ended up walking a career-high five and throwing 102 pitches. Norris got the last two outs of the inning. Norris ended up getting four outs with three strikeouts hasn't allowed a hit or run in his last four appearances.
Two of the five runs on Manning’s ledger were unearned and came in a 26-pitch third inning. It started, as so many bad innings do, with a walk. Cedric Mullins then ripped a first-pitch slider into right field, putting runners at the corners with one out.
Manning got Adley Rutschman to hit a ground ball up the middle to the right of second baseman Harold Castro who muffed the hop. What looked like an inning-ending double-play turned into an error that opened up a three-run inning.
The Orioles parlayed five singles into three more runs off Jason Foley in the eighth.
Orioles veteran starter Jordan Lyles came into the game leading the American League in hits allowed, after leading the league in earned runs and homers allowed last year.
But the Tigers barely scratched him. They managed two singles through the first six innings before rookie Kerry Carpenter blasted his second homer in two nights and his sixth in just 28 games this season. The two home runs were almost identical – opposite-field blasts off 91-mph fastballs thrown up and on the outside part of the plate.
Lyles ended up going all nine innings.
The loss blocked a chance at history for the Tigers. They’d never before swept an opponent in a single season when facing them six or more times.
