Tigers' Báez ties game in the ninth, but Orioles take opener with walk-off win

Baltimore – The fans at Camden Yards were chanting "Over-rated, over-rated," during Javier Báez's at-bats Friday night. Orioles' closer Felix Bautista might not think so.

The Tigers were down to their last strike in the ninth inning against Bautista, who was throwing 102-mph heaters and 90-mph splitters. He threw four straight splitters to Báez, which turned out to be one too many.

"I saw him, he felt comfortable throwing that pitch," said Báez, who shot the 2-2 splitter into left field, delivering a clutch, two-out single to score Akil Baddoo from second base, tying the game 1-1. "I just sat on it. He got a lot of the zone and I was ready for it."

Alas, that moment was short-lived for the Tigers. Manager AJ Hinch played the matchups with his bullpen, as he has expertly through this recent stretch. Lefty Tyler Holton got four straight outs, including Adley Rutschman to start the ninth.

Hinch then went to sinker-baller Jason Foley against right-handed hitting Ryan Mountcastle and switch-hitter Anthony Santander. Mountcastle singled and then Foley got ground balls from Santander and Adam Frazier. Unfortunately, Santader's snuck through the right side, sending Mountcastle to third base.

Frazier hit a chopper that first baseman Spencer Torkelson fielded charging toward home plate. His throw home was on the first base side, though, and Mountcastle scored the walk-off winner as the Orioles prevailed 2-1.

BOX SCORE: Orioles 2, Tigers 1

It was the Tigers' fifth straight one-run game. They are 3-2 in those games.

"Our guys will play the whole game," Hinch said. "We had every chance to win this game. We just couldn't do anything early offensively. We'll keep playing and these games will go our way."

Torkelson didn't hesitate on the chopper by Frazier. He charged it and came home, which Hinch said was the correct play.

"There was no chance for a double-play, I didn't think," Hinch said. "We wanted to try to get the runner at home, especially on any kind of chopper like that. If the ball was hit up the middle we could've had a decision to make."

The game was scoreless until the seventh inning. With two outs, left fielder Austin Hays jumped a 3-2 four-seam fastball (96 mph) from reliever Jose Cisnero and drove it 413 feet over the wall in center field − scoreless no more. It was the first run the bullpen had yielded in 17.1 innings.

Until that point, Tigers' right-hander Michael Lorenzen and Orioles' right-handed starter Tyler Wells had things in lockdown.

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"Today was a good day," said Lorenzen, who blanked the O's for five inning in his second start coming back off the injured list (groin). "My arm felt good. My body feels good. The build-up is going nicely."

Things got a little zany in the bottom of the fourth inning after home plate umpire Brock Ballou called a balk on Lorenzen in the fourth inning.

Speedy Cedric Mullins, who had two hits, led off the inning with a walk. Lorenzen threw over once and then he and catcher Jake Rogers disagreed on a pitch. Lorenzen shook twice and then finally went to his PitchCom to call the pitch he wanted.

Unwittingly, though, he stepped off the mound to do it. It was his second disengagement. Mullins knew that, Lorenzen didn't. Mullins smartly took a wild dancing lead off first to draw the third disengagement.

"I didn't think (the second one) was a disengagement," Lorenzen said. "But then I hear yelling, like he's running, so I stepped off to throw and they called it."

On the third disengagement, the pitcher has to throw the runner out or he gets a balk. That put the go-ahead on run on second with no outs. Lorenzen and Ballou had a long talk.

"I told the umpire, 'This is all new to us,'" Lorenzen said. "'It's my fault, but can you at least make eye contact with me next time (after the second disengagement)?' I'm not even thinking about it. It's new to me. I mean, it's my fault, ultimately. It won't happen next time."

Hinch rushed out of the dugout and got between Lorenzen and Ballou.

"He just wanted the ump to remind him that he took the second disengagement prior to that pitch," Hinch said. "Umps aren't required to do that. I just went out to calm everyone down. The ump got it right. We needed to get on to the next play."

Lorenzen regathered, striking out Rutschman and worked out of the inning.

"We're playing better," Báez said. "We're playing cleaner baseball. It's a long season, man, many things are going to happen. There's going to be ups and downs. We just have to try to be on top as much as we can."

The Tigers fall to 7-11 on the year, 1-9 against teams from the American League East.

chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @cmccosky