Suárez excels for Orioles in Bay Area homecoming

OAKLAND -- The Orioles arrived in the Bay Area on Thursday night ahead of their three-game weekend series in Oakland and headed to their hotel in San Francisco. The team bus drove past Oracle Park (the home ballpark for the Giants), which brought a moment of reflection for Albert Suárez.

In 2024, Suárez is a well-traveled, 34-year-old right-hander having a tremendous season for Baltimore after five years in Japan ('19-21) and Korea ('22-23). But at one time, he was a young hurler trying to find his way, breaking into the big leagues with San Francisco in '16-17.

A lot has happened since then, including plenty of maturation and a wealth of experience.

“Yesterday, when we went [by] the stadium, I was like, 'Oh, that was like my last home,’” Suárez said. “Being back here is something that brings a lot of memories -- a lot of good memories.”

Suárez continues to make even better ones in his return season to MLB, as he delivered another solid start in the Orioles’ series-opening 3-2 win over the A’s on Friday night at the Oakland Coliseum. The righty yielded only a pair of solo home runs during an 86-pitch outing in which he pitched into the seventh inning for the first time this year.

Over six-plus frames, Suárez recorded a season-high-tying six strikeouts. He lowered his ERA to 2.48 through 18 games (11 starts).

“So good,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “Good curveball working tonight. The fastball had a bunch of life. We talked about it his last start -- just an outstanding six full innings.”

Prior to June 28, Suárez owned only two MLB outings of six or more innings, both coming as a rookie for the Giants in 2016. He has since gone at least six in two straight quality starts after tossing six scoreless frames vs. the Rangers on June 28.

It’s become clear how much Suárez has improved since recording a 4.51 ERA over 40 games (12 starts) during his first two MLB seasons.

“Definitely more experienced. A lot of experience. And I think that helped me,” Suárez said. “Right now, yeah, I feel like I'm a better pitcher than I was before.”

Suárez typically depends heavily on his four-seam fastball, his best swing-and-miss pitch. But he mixed in his curveball a bit more against Oakland, throwing it 16 times and using it to generate three of his eight whiffs.

Before giving up a seventh-inning leadoff homer to Shea Langeliers on his 86th and final pitch, Suárez had retired 17 of 19 A’s batters, as he cruised for much of the night.

Suárez’s past two starts have been closer to the successful ones he had early this season for the O’s, and less like the pair of tough road outings he had against the Yankees (three runs in 3 2/3 innings on June 18) and the Astros (five runs in five innings on June 23) last month.

“That’s going to happen. You’re going to have one or two starts here or there where it just doesn’t go your way,” said outfielder Austin Hays, who went 3-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI on his 29th birthday. “We love playing defense behind [Suárez]. He throws strikes, he knows how to pitch and use all his pitches in all counts. It’s fun to watch.”

It’s also the likely reason why Baltimore opted to keep Suárez in its starting rotation over Cole Irvin, who was bumped to the bullpen after Dean Kremer returned from the injured list earlier this week.

The Orioles (56-32) have won seven of nine to extend their American League East lead over the Yankees (54-36) to a season-high three games. They’ve done so in large part due to their rotation, which continues to thrive despite losing three starters (Kyle Bradish, John Means and Tyler Wells) to season-ending UCL surgeries in June.

Baltimore starters have allowed two or fewer runs in eight of their past nine games, with Suárez contributing two of those outings.

“Seeing guys step up into some of the roles they didn’t have to start the year and have the success that they have, it’s awesome,” Hays said. “That’s what makes really good teams good, is that you have depth and you have guys you may not have expected to be in a role and they step into it and they perform really well. We have a lot of guys doing that right now.”

Perhaps none more impressively than Suárez, who was pleased following another strong showing.

“All in all, it was a good performance,” Suárez said, “and I'm happy.”