BALTIMORE -- Amid the Pirates' offensive struggles over the last week and a half, manager Derek Shelton has discussed the need for that one big hit that can get the offense going, that one big hit that can allow the offense to collectively exhale. In the ninth inning, they had their opportunity.

The Pirates entered the ninth trailing by four runs, but brought the tying run to the plate after three straight batters reached base and manufactured a run. Andrew McCutchen walked. Carlos Santana singled. Jack Suwinski singled home McCutchen. They had life, but Orioles closer Félix Bautista put them to rest.

Bautista struck out Connor Joe, then Rodolfo Castro, then Ji Hwan Bae -- all swinging -- delivering Pittsburgh a 6-3 loss on Friday night at Camden Yards. The Pirates have now lost 10 of their last 11 games, and with the Brewers defeating the Royals, 5-1, they’ve officially lost their hold at the top of the NL Central.

“This guy’s elite,” said Shelton. “I think we knew that. The ability to execute the fastball at 98-99 and throw the split off it. He came in and did a good job. He came in and executed pitches. That’s what elite closers do.”

The Pirates couldn’t get their big swing of the night, but several innings earlier, the Orioles got theirs as Cedric Mullins blasted a three-run home run off Duane Underwood Jr. to complete the cycle and give the Orioles a four-run lead.

“It was hung,” Underwood said. “It was outer-third, but the kind of swing he has, you have to go below the zone there. You can’t leave anything in the zone. I think he ended up hitting for the cycle, right? He’s obviously seeing the ball good today. So, bad pitch. I wouldn’t change selection of it. Execution just needed to be below the zone, especially after the cutter in.”

The inability to fully mount the comeback in the ninth hurt, yes, but one of the game’s defining decisions occurred well before the game’s final frame.

In the seventh with the Pirates leading by one, Shelton elected to use Jose Hernandez in a rare leverage situation. Hernandez has pitched well for Pittsburgh, but Shelton seldom used the Rule 5 pick in high leverage situations this season. Generally, Shelton will use Underwood or Robert Stephenson in the seventh inning when the Pirates are leading; both serve as a bridge to Colin Holderman in the eighth and David Bednar in the ninth.

The rookie left-hander retired the first batter he faced, then allowed back-to-back doubles to Mullins and Adley Rutschman. Shelton pulled Hernandez following Rutschman’s double for Underwood, who allowed a go-ahead single to Ryan Mountcastle that gave the Orioles the one-run lead that they’d never relinquish. Mountcastle’s grounder was playable for Castro, but Castro was unable to knock it down and keep it in the infield. 

“We had used him in certain situations like that earlier in the year,” Shelton said. “We knew we were going to get a pinch-hitter for [Kyle] Stowers. We wanted the left-on-left with Mullins. We wanted to flip Rutschman around. That was the three-hitter stretch he got.”

If there was any silver lining on Friday, it came in the form of Johan Oviedo, who allowed one run across five-plus innings. Oviedo entered this start having allowed 13 earned runs in his last two starts, a stretch that ballooned his ERA from 3.03 to 5.59. Oviedo wasn’t particularly sharp, walking five batters and throwing 44 strikes to 42 balls, but given how his last two outings unfolded, Oviedo will take the results. 

“He was effectively wild,” Shelton said. “I think he threw as many balls as he did strikes. When he had to make pitches, he made pitches. That’s a sign of a young kid kind of growing up. Because he didn’t have his best stuff. He scattered the ball a little bit. But when he had to make pitches, he did.”