Baltimore left-hander Cole Irvin had another solid outing, working 5 2/3 innings in the Orioles’ 4-2 victory against the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night.
Jordan Westburg and Gunnar Henderson had run-scoring doubles as the Orioles won for the sixth time in their past seven games.
Ketel Marte homered and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. had two hits for Arizona, which had its season-high, four-game winning streak snapped.
Irvin, whose scoreless streak reached 22 innings before he yielded a run, left with two runners on base and two outs in the sixth. Albert Suarez allowed a run-scoring single to Eugenio Suarez before getting the final out of the frame.
Still, Irvin (4-1) won his fourth consecutive start. He gave up two runs on five hits and a walk while striking out six.
Perhaps just as important regarding Baltimore’s pitching staff was that Craig Kimbrel, who had struggled recently as the closer, was used in the seventh and worked a 1-2-3 inning.
Jacob Webb, Cionel Perez and Yennier Cano combined to get through the final two innings. Cano pitched the ninth for his second save, as Marte grounded out with a runner on third to end the game.
Diamondbacks starter Brandon Pfaadt (1-3) gave up three runs on five hits and two walks in six innings without recording a strikeout.
The Orioles, opening a nine-game homestand, took a 2-0 lead in the second inning, scoring on Westburg’s double and Cedric Mullins’ groundout.
Marte hit a solo homer with one out in the third, his eighth of the season. That was the first run scored off Irvin in four outings.
Ryan O’Hearn’s two-out RBI single in the fifth stretched the edge to 3-1.
Henderson’s run-scoring double made it 4-2 in the seventh.
There wasn’t a strikeout of a Baltimore batter until the second out of the bottom of the seventh.
–Field Level Media
